Gathering Background Information
Once you have a general idea about what you want to research, you might need a little background information to help create your thesis question (that is, exactly what you want to know about this specific topic).
For example, you might know you want to do research on social media, but what do you want to write about EXACTLY? Doing a little background research can help you decide on what exactly you want to research about social media such as "What effect does daily use of Instragram have on the self esteem of children under 12?" This thesis question is much more specific than the general topic and will help guide your research and give your paper substance.
To get some background information, you can try searching for your topic in some background resources such as newspaper databases, reference books, and reference databases.
Here are some databases that might help you with your background research:
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is a general knowledge database providing articles, images, charts, maps and other materials on thousands of topics. With 750+ searchable, full-text titles, Credo Reference places particular emphasis on subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks. Also included are more than 1,100 short reference videos, more than 475,000 high-resolution art images, photographs, and maps across all subject areas.
- Sage Reference This link opens in a new window
Start your research with authoritative encyclopedias and handbooks in the social and behavioral sciences. Provides access to hundreds of carefully selected reference titles on topics across the social sciences. Content includes handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and debates.
- Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides cover-to-cover full text for 45 U.S. & international newspapers. The database also contains selective full text for 389 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including the New Haven Register and New London Day. It includes newswires, news magazines, television and radio transcripts, news video clips, and more. It is updated daily with the most recent news. Wire sources include the Associated Press (AP), CNN Wire, PR Wire, UPI (United Press International), and Xinhua (China). Television and radio news transcript sources include ABC News (United States), ABC (Australia), CBC (Canada), CBS News, CNBC, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, MSNBC, NPR, and PBS. View the EBSCO Search Tutorial Video
- In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints offers material to support differing views to help develop critical thinking skills on thousands of current social topics in the forms of primary source documents, statistics, websites and multimedia. Find overviews, news, and opinions on hundreds of today's important social issues, including racism, capital punishment, global warming, and voting rights with reference sources, newspaper and magazine articles, scholarly journals, court cases, government documents, viewpoints, maps, images, audio, video and websites.