Need to complete a research project?

There are a wealth of resources beyond Google available from Sonoma State University Library. This guide provides step-by-step hep to prepare a quality research paper on almost any subject area and provides tips on how to:

• Articulate your topic
• Find academic alternatives to Wikipedia
• Locate scholarly articles and books
• Evaluate the sources you want to use
• Create an annotated bibliography
• Cite your sources correctly

Research is an ongoing, iterative process. This means that one task you complete will inform all the other parts of your research. For example, as you begin to gather information about your topic, you will learn more about your topic, which leads you to ask new questions, refine your ideas, and possibly change your research question.

It is helpful to think of research as a circular process where you approach it as a way to answer a variety of questions instead of a linear, step-by-step checklist to be completed at one time.

To learn more about how research is an iterative process, watch the short, 3 minute video created by librarians North Carolina State University below.