Gallery Director and Curator Lia and Research Librarian Cara are excited to be on your research journey with you! Directly below, find the links for Writing Assignment #3.
In addition, this guide is full of resources to help get you started with the research process. Click through the tabs to find links for finding sources, research tips & tricks, and citation guidance. If you have any questions, just email us or book an appointment!
Confused why you're not getting the results you want from your research? Check out the video below for some helpful tips.
Spending some time mind mapping at the beginning of your research can save you a lot of time later on! You can use a blank sheet of paper for this, but App State University Library has created a digital template you can use. Two example mindmaps are at the bottom of this box as an attachment.
Mind Mapping Steps:
1. In the center of the paper, write your topic. It's fine if you're still refining it or if it's overly broad - that's a normal part of the research process!
2. Draw a few lines stemming out from your topic, as if your topic were the sun and you are drawing its rays.
3. Think about the question: "Who else in the world cares/cared about this topic?" Think in broad categories. Historians? Gender Studies scholars? Journalists? Someone who lived through the event or was affected by it?
4. Write your answers to the "who cares?" question at the ends of the lines stemming from your topic, one answer per line.
5. Think about how each of the categories of people who care about your topic produce/produced information. What format would the information be available in? A historian, for instance, might have written a book or journal article. A journalist may have written a news article. Someone who lived through the event might have written a letter, taken a photo, or posted on social media.
6. Draw some more lines, stemming from your answers to the format question. Each "who cares" may have more than one format possibility attached to it.
7. Take a look at the pathways you have created. For instance, a book written by a historian and a letter written by someone who lived through the event might both be sources you want to track down. Now that you have a more concrete idea of what you'll need to find, it will be easier to find it.
8. Use your mindmap to guide your research. Take a look at the pages on this guide related to finding sources, and read the database descriptions to see which ones might best match the types of sources you're trying to find. If you're not sure, we encourage you to ask a librarian for advice on which databases to choose!
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Mailing Address: Davidson College - E.H. Little Library, 209 Ridge Road, Box 5000, Davidson, NC 28035
