Research in History: Reinforcing Information Literacy
PART 1: Develop a research question on a focused topic and identify sources.
Summary: For this assignment, you will:
- Work through a set of tutorials about research in history.
- Develop a research question on a focused topic using the list of themes provided.
- Use library resources to identify and locate sources for research on the focused topic
- Write a short paragraph explaining how the sources were identified and located.
Grades will be based on the quality of the research question, the quality and relevance of the sources, and the quality of writing. The assignment will be graded according to the rubric provided.
Step 1: Tutorials
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Your work will be evaluated based on the criteria presented in these tutorials.
Use this link to view tutorials on the topics listed below. Click the “Research Process” link to open additional options.
- The Research Process
- Background Research Tips
- Narrowing Your Topic
- Constructing a Thesis Statement
Step 2: Research Question
You will use two documents for this step, a List of Themes, and a Form for submitting your work.
- Select a theme from the list provided and type your choice into the form.
- Using what you learned in the tutorials from Step 1, develop a research question. Type the research question into the form provided. Your research question
- Should not be a restatement of the theme, but should be more specific, considering some aspect of the theme that can be analyzed in a typical 8-10 page research paper.
Step 3: Tutorials
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Your work will be evaluated based on the criteria presented in these tutorials.
Begin with tutorials from the Jerry Falwell Library on this page.
http://www.liberty.edu/library/research-tutorials/
Look for links called
- Using the Jerry Falwell Library
- Find Articles
- Find Books
- General Search Tips
Next, work through the tutorials on this page to learn more about evaluating sources for research.
Pay careful attention to the five criteria for evaluating sources and how they apply to your topic.
Step 4: Identify and locate sources
Use library resources to identify and locate sources to be used for research. You will need at least three sources including
- At least one book. Choose a work of historical scholarship that is directly relevant to your topic. Try to find the most recent and most relevant work. Do not use a textbook.
- At least one article from a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal. Make sure your selection is an article, not a book review, letter to the editor, etc. Most scholarly articles in history will be at least 20 pages long and will be based on primary source material.
- The best library databases for articles in history are
- No more than one website. A website is not required, but if you use one, you must be able to demonstrate that it is credible and that it meets the qualifications for scholarly historical research. The History Channel, About.com, and Wikipedia are not considered scholarly sources.
Type identifying information about your sources on the form provided. You do not need to have fully formatted citations, but you should have all the information necessary to do so.
Step 5: Describe your work
Write one paragraph (100-150 words) explaining how you identified and located the sources. Do not include the research question or the titles of sources in the paragraph. If you need to refer to a book or article, use the author’s last name only. Type the paragraph, double-spaced, into the form provided.
Here is an example paragraph for researching this question: In what ways did the Magna Carta limit royal authority?
Searching for books using the terms “Magna Carta” and “authority” on the library’s main search page resulted in a list of several useful items including the essay collection edited by Sandoz and the Hindley history. Using the subject terms for these two works, a WorldCat search turned up several more books, the best of which was a recent work by Palitto. Similar search terms entered in JStor led to a long list of results, but most were book reviews. Changing the search terms to focus on King John led to a better list of results including the Barratt article. The remaining two sources were listed in Barratt’s bibliography.
Finish and Submit
Review Steps 1-5 above. Check your work to make sure it is accurate and complete. Review your paragraph carefully, revising and editing to achieve an example of the best writing you are able to produce. Use the resources provided in the Writing folder in Blackboard for additional writing help.
Save the form as a Word document and submit it in Blackboard.
