Step 2: Before You Begin
Before you begin your academic research, you must have a basic understanding of your topic. This is called "background information." This will help you know what words to put in your search, making your search for academic resources more effective. Additionally, the things you find are likely to be more useful to you. This is the stage in research to use things like encyclopedias (print and web-based).
One good resource in the BPCC library is Credo Reference. Using the topic pages in this database will help you get accurate background information. This source even links you to journal articles. To learn how to use this resource, watch the video below.
While you are gathering "background information" write down 3-5 of the most important ideas. You will be able to tell which ideas are important because they will come up multiple times and in more than one source. This list will give you the best words to use for searching the databases for scholarly resources.
