ENGL 101--Seeger : Home
Greetings, young scholars!
Welcome to the course guide for Professor Seeger's ENGL 101 classes. The purpose of this guide is to:
- Introduce you to the steps of the basic research process
- Show you how to find various types of sources for your assignment
- Introduce tools for evaluating your sources
- Provide citation support resources
To accomplish these goals, this guide will use a combination of written instructions and short videos. If you have questions about any of the content provided in this guide, please feel free to contact me.
Happy searching!
The Research Process
Research can be overwhelming, but it helps to remember that research is a process.
This guide will walk you through the steps of that process, and along the way, we will introduce you to activities/techniques and connect you with resources appropriate for completing that step in the process.
We've also created a worksheet that you can fill out as you go.
Most of the time people run into problems with their research because they approach the process backwards. They begin with a thesis and look for information to support that thesis. Research should begin with a question or a hypothesis. If you start with a question, the answer you find during the course of your research becomes your thesis. If you start with your hypothesis, the information you find will either confirm or disprove your hypothesis. If your hypothesis is confirmed, that is your thesis. If it is disproven, you should reevaluate based on the new information.
It helps to think of the research process as an upside down triangle. You generally begin broadly and narrow as you go.
Brandy Horne
