When you visit UMW, you have a limited amount of time in which to do research. How can you make the most of this time?
Try this strategy:
- Find the basics first.
- For example, if your topic is "factors that lead to success in college," look for a book that tells you what those factors are.
- It's okay to use non-scholarly sources such as Wikipedia to get an overview of the basics of a topic.
- Read, and take notes.
- For example, you might read that adequate sleep is correlated with success in college. If so, write that down!
- Use your notes as search terms.
- For example, you could do a new search using the words "sleep" and "college."
- As you find more information, keep taking notes on what you find, and keep using those notes as search terms.
- Save the best sources so you can cite them later.
- Email articles to yourself. Check out books, or scan pages from books.
