LANG 1408 - Academic English for Humanities and Social Science Studies

These strategies are not "do it once in this order & be done". Instead, they are recommendations for approaches that are often done several times at different points in your research.  They also involve techniques that are shown in the sub-sections. 

1. Start with what you have been given

   1. Ideas, information, data,  themes, methods of analysis from lectures
   2. Ideas, information, data, themes, arguments, from readings

2. Look for clues in your readings (syllabus)

   1. Main argument, findings  (in abstract? in conclusion?)
   2. Keywords, special terms?
   3. Important authors?
   4. References to other articles, books, statistics in assigned readings (for your follow-up)  = Classic Scholarly Method

3. Use References from things you  research & find  = The Classic Scholarly Method)

   1. When you do research, you will find things cited in papers & books you read. You can then look those up and read them.
   2. You can then also citation chain forward (see what scholars used the article you found useful. after it was punblished)

4. Think about the arguments & evidence from the readings and lectures and other info

   1. See if/how they apply to your topic
   2. What questions do they give you?   Start to search for answers or evidence that might lead you to your answer, your theory, your argument.

5. Search for more answers or evidence (or questions!) in recommended  in PowerSearch or other search tools

6. Use smart-search techniques in those search tools