Engl 130: Research Hacks

Remember that you have built an understanding of a topic and the discussion around it from your previous research. Now you need to start thinking about practical solutions and applications with a proposal and plan for a local audience.

The library offers databases for newspaper articles, statistics, and guides to government information in addition to academic journal articles. Searching these is a critical part of building evidence about the community you are researching and the changes you believe they need to make.

Steps to Gathering Community Information:

• Determine at what geographic levels you want to build evidence (e.g. UND, local, state, national)

• Reflect on different dimensions that may influence the problem you want to solve (e.g. economic, social, psychological, etc.)​

• Identify stakeholders already invested in your community of interest​

  • Visit their website​

  • Conduct searches for documents​

  • Evaluate their potential biases​

  • Consider contacting them​

• Consider alternative communities to compare or contrast with your community of interest

You do not have to start from scratch! Through becoming an expert internet searcher, you will discover reports, commonly known as "grey literature," that detail the mission and goals of community organizations and institutions. Look at how these are working on your issue: how do they present it? Where do they get their data? What can be applied to your situation? What are the opportunities and barriers? 

You've gone over searching with the library website and databases, now you will learn how to use local resources like newspapers and statistics. Watch this video to learn about how you can use newspaper and data for your topic. This video was created in Spring 2019.

Now that you've watched the videos and become familiar with exploratory research, complete the online activity below.

Using online resources like news and data is important, but it is also significant to understand how to evaluate your resources as well. Watch this video to learn about how you evaluate your web searches. This video was created in Spring 2019.

The internet can be a powerful resource, but also it can be overwhelming. Watch this video to learn about how you can use power searching when doing a search on the internet. This video was created in Spring 2019.

Best Bets for Exploratory Research to help you define your topic. Use the search links below or access them from the library homepage ... Quick Links for easy access:

Specialized Data Tools