- St. Olaf Libraries
- Research Guides
- Writing 120O: Out of Time
- Find Background Information
Writing 120O: Out of Time
Need a Boost?
LibKey Nomad
Librarian
Audrey Gunn
Contact:
304 Rolvaag Memorial Library
1510 St. Olaf Avenue
St. Olaf College
Northfield, MN 55057
1510 St. Olaf Avenue
St. Olaf College
Northfield, MN 55057
507-786-3658
Website
Subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Chemistry/Biology, Computer Science, Creative Writing, Data Science, Engineering, English, Environmental Conversations, Environmental Studies, Kinesiology, Mathematics, Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, Neuroscience, Nursing, Physics, Public Health, Statistics
Why is gathering background research important?
It's important to familiarize yourself with a topic before you begin doing more specific and extensive research.
Background research will help you:
- Narrow your topic and focus your research question
- Find historical information, trends, agreements and disagreements, related to the topic, and uncovers gaps in your knowledge
- Learn the context of a topic -- the who, what, when, where, why, and how
- Uncover keywords you can use to do more extensive research
- Find additional sources on your topic
Searchable collections of online encyclopedias
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowOffers full-text access to over 500 highly-regarded titles from 70 publishers. Covers every major subject in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences from the world's best publishers of reference.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Reference Online brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest and most trusted reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.
Wise Wikipedia Use
- Wikipedia
"The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit."
Tips for Wise Wikipedia Use
- Be aware that anyone can edit entries in Wikipedia.
- Consider it as a starting point for research; get to know your topic and identify important keywords.
- Look for references to reliable, published sources (in the References or Bibliography sections).
- Pay attention to the alert boxes and symbols. "Featured Articles" have a star to indicate their high quality; articles that are in need of updating (e.g. citation needed, newly available information, relies too much on primary sources) will be marked at the top of the page.