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.
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Start with what you have been given
- Ideas, information, data, themes, methods of analysis from lectures
- Ideas, information, data, themes, arguments, from readings
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Look for clues in your readings (syllabus)
- Main argument, findings (in abstract? in conclusion?)
- Keywords, special terms?
- Important authors?
- References to other articles, books, statistics in assigned readings (for your follow-up) = Classic Scholarly Method
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Use References from things you research & find = The Classic Scholarly Method)
- When you do research, you will find things cited in papers & books you read. You can then look those up and read them.
- You can then also citation chain forward (see what scholars used the article you found useful. after it was punblished)
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Think about the arguments & evidence from the readings and lectures and other info
- See if/how they apply to your topic
- What questions do they give you? Start to search for answers or evidence that might lead you to your answer, your theory, your argument.
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Search for more answers or evidence (or questions!) in recommended in PowerSearch or other search tools
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Use smart-search techniques in those search tools