At the very beginning of the research process for a paper, you’ll hopefully have a few ideas for a topic for your paper. It's important to develop a topic into a research question. If all you have is a topic, you'll write a report: a collection of facts, figures, dates. A college-level paper poses and answers a question or series of related questions: what, why, how, perhaps who, when, where. A successful paper develops an argument and answers your question or questions in an logical, interesting, and convincing fashion.
A key to crafting a viable research question is finding something that sparks your interest and that will sustain your interest over the course of a semester.
One key to writing a successful paper is finding and citing credible sources. Follow the red tabs to search for sources, save your sources, cite your sources properly, and create your bibliography.
Following the tabs may seem to imply that this is a lineal process. It's not. It’s important to approach your research as a creative process. The databases you select, the terms you search for, and the questions you pose, may well evolve as you engage with your sources and your knowledge of your topic develops.