ENG 101: Prof. Payne's Classes: Step 3: Thesis- Driven Research

At this point, you have amassed a lot of information on your topic. You should have a clear thesis statement and you will need specific evidence to back-up your statement. It is possible that you already came across such information in step two. If so- congrats! If not, we have one more step to perform:

1. Go to the library homepage: Library.ncc.edu

2. Look for the grey box on the center of the page.

3. Click on Advanced Search.

4. Enter relevant terms from your thesis. Remember, we never use full sentences in any of the databases!

Be specific- you need to find articles that will provide the evidence to support your thesis. In this example, my thesis is that common core standards negatively impact the education of K-12 students.

5. Before you go through these results, look at the left side of the page. You should select "Publication Date" to articles within the last 5 years to get the most recent results.

Unhappy with the results of your search? Don't be discouraged! Finding articles is easy but finding the right articles is the hard part.

Remember that this is not a Google search- ask yourself the following:

• Did I use relevant search terms instead of sentences?
• Is everything spelled correctly?
• Did I try synonyms for my terms? (i.e. intellect instead of brain, youth instead of kids, etc.)
• Am I being too specific? (i.e. using Facebook as a search term instead of social media)

Still having trouble? Consult a librarian! We are happy to help!