Basic Research Tips
Basic Research Tips
- Choose a topic.
- Your topic should be general enough to research, but not too specific as to limit your resources.
- Ex: Hurricanes
- Think of several questions concerning your topic.
- These questions will be where you start your research.
- Ex: 1. How are hurricanes classified? 2. How are hurricanes named? 3. What is the difference between a hurricane and a tropical depression?
- Identify key words to research.
- If you do not know much about your research topic, then your key words would actually be your topic. Also, key words can come from your research questions (Step 2).
- Ex: tropical cyclone, hurricane season, parts of a hurricane
- ***Select Sources.***
- Remember, you do not always have to stick to the Internet. Your library media center offers a lot of print resources!
- GALILEO- lots of databases that will include articles, pictures, and videos about your topic
- Book and Encyclopedia Resources- use Destiny to locate books about your topic
- Remember, you do not always have to stick to the Internet. Your library media center offers a lot of print resources!
- Magazines
- Search Engines- Google, Yahoo, Bing, and etc. This should be your last resort. Using search engines correctly takes a lot of time and practice.
- Ex: Britannica Online Encyclopedia- typed in hurricanes & Howling Hurricanes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury-book found in LMC
- Skim through the information.
- Quickly read over the information and decide if it will be useful for your research topic.
- If the information is not useful, disregard the source and look for another source.
Note-Taking for MLA
- Complete ALL of the Basic Research Tips.
- Have plenty of index cards. I would recommend the large index cards (5x8). If you don’t have those, regular index cards (3x5) will work.
- Create a NOTE-CARD for each fact you are using from a source.
- Your note-card should have the following parts:
- Slug- a word or phrase that describes the subtopic (written in upper left corner)
- Ex: Hurricane Size
- Source Number- the source number matches a SOURCE-CARD which has all of the correct MLA citation information on it (written in upper right corner). This will help you keep everything organized, and help you not to plagiarize.
- Ex: 2
- Note- your fact from the source. This can be a direct quote, summary, or paraphrase.
- Ex: A hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone.
- Parenthetical Notation- This is the information required by MLA to show up in the body of your research paper.
- Ex: (Ready). ***This is the parenthetical notation for the fact listed above. It’s from the website www.ready.gov
- Note Type- this should tell you if the note is a direct quote, summary, or paraphrase from the source.
- Slug- a word or phrase that describes the subtopic (written in upper left corner)

MLA Citations: The Basics
- You should create a SOURCE-CARD for each of your sources (electronic or print).
- The information you include on your source-card will be the same information you include at the end of your research product. The information included on each source-card will vary by the type of source.
Books: Basic Format
Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.
***Look for the links at the bottom of the page to help with different types of MLA citations.***
MLA Citation Links
Online Writing Lab (OWL)- MLA Style/Format Guide
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
EasyBib: Free Bibliography Generator
BibMe- Examples of MLA Citations for Different Source Types