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How to do Research for a College Paper
STEP 2: Brainstorming and Background Information
Brainstorm what you already know and look for additional Background Information.
- Identify dates, people involved, places, related issues, and subtopics.
- If you don't know a lot about the topic, use reference sources, like encyclopedias, to get an overview of the broad topic.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowA great source for background information on a topic. Provides a complete reference collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, full text entries, images, sound files, data, maps, and more.
Keywords
Jot down keywords.
- Keywords are:
- The main concepts in your question
- Descriptive words
- Synonyms and related terms
- These terms will be used to help you search library databases for books and articles.