Research is nothing more than solving an information problem.  We do it all the time -- from looking up an address to writing a major research paper.  The directions and resources offered on this page will help you whenever you need to do research (or solve an information problem).  Whether you are preparing a speech, a term paper, a homework assignment you can start here.

Doing research is a process.  It takes some thought, preparation, and a bit of time to it properly.  If you are willing to follow the same basic steps each time you will soon become an expert!  So, what are the steps?  They are as follows:

1.  Task Definition. (What information will you need to locate to complete the assignment and what does your teacher ask you to do with it?)

What are the specifics of your assignment and what are the pieces of information that you need to locate?  Make a list of the specific requirements for your assignment.  Identify the types of information you will need, the format or form of your project, and all the parameters supplied by your teacher.  Make a second list of all the questions you need to answer about your topic or issue.  These will be what guides your actual research.

2.  Information Seeking Strategies.
(What types of sources can you use and which ones are most likely to contain your information?)

Many times students are not aware of what sources of information are available to them.  The most likely place to look is in your school's library!  Naperville Central has an extensive collection of books, magazines, and online database subscriptions to assist you with your research needs.  Check with the library staff if you do not know what is available.  Better yet, check the resources web page for links to them all!

Once you know what is on hand, determine which ones you need to start with.  If you need basic facts a good general encyclopedia can help.  There are many books which can also provide statistics, basic facts, or even analyses of issues.

3.  Locate & Access Information.
(How do you find the sources and then the information itself inside the sources?)

  Locating the information:

	in a library - use the library catalog and ask the librarian for help
	in a book - look at the table of contents or the index for relevant terms
	in a magazine - use an index to get a specific article, don't browse.
	on the Internet - use the appropriate search tool
	on a web site - "find in page" helps as does good navigation links
	in a database - learn to create a boolean search

4.  Use of Information.
(How to recognize and extract the information from each source.)

Once you have a resource in your hands on on your computer screen you have READ IT.  This is the point where you must engage your brain and read for general ideas, read for specific facts, and begin taking notes.  Keep track of which source contains which pieces of information!

If your assignment requires you to analyze or determine "why" or "how" something happened or "compare" it with something else you may need to pull information from many sources -- not just one -- and compare what you find.  Unless you only need basic fundamental facts, you will need to gather lots of information then sift through it for relevance.
 

5.  Synthesis.
(This is where you put all the pieces together into your final presentation.)

Organizing all your information, processing what you have collected, and putting it into the final presentation format is really the easiest part of the whole process.  If you have asked the right kind of questions, found the answers by doing good research, this step is almost automatic.