The UNLV Libraries has created interactive tutorials to help you throughout the research process. These include:
Explore them below!
This tutorial will help you deepen your understanding of the distinctions between popular and scholarly sources, as well as primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. By engaging with these concepts, you’ll be better equipped to choose the right types of information for your research, ensuring that your work is well-supported and credible. This tutorial, combined with the video, will give you the tools you need to navigate the vast landscape of information sources effectively.
This tutorial is an important step in honing your research abilities, building on the foundational work you’ve done so far, and preparing you to tackle your research project with confidence. Click the button to launch the tutorial!
Creating strong keywords is essential for finding the right information during your research. Keywords act as the link between your research questions and the resources that can help you answer them. For instance, if you're exploring the impact of social media on mental health, keywords like "social media," "mental health," and "impact" will guide your search.
As you refine your topic, you’ll likely revise your keywords, adding synonyms or related terms to improve your results. This process is flexible and ongoing, helping you uncover the most relevant sources.
To help you get started, we’ve created an interactive tutorial that will guide you through generating and refining your initial keywords. Completing this tutorial will give you the tools to conduct effective searches and enhance your research process. Click the button to launch the tutorial!
When searching in a library database, connectors like "AND," "OR," and "NOT" help you refine your search. These connectors allow you to combine or exclude terms, making your search results more precise. For example, using "social media AND mental health" will only show results that include both terms, while "social media OR mental health" will show results that include either term. Understanding and using these connectors can save you time and ensure you find exactly what you need.
Explore the concept of using connectors further with our interactive tutorial to improve your search results. Click the button to launch the tutorial!
As you work on your ENG 102 Research Project remember to make full use of the resources provided to support your research. The keyword worksheet helps you develop search terms and concepts to use to find sources. The research log template will help you organize your resources for your annotated bibliography.