Download and print this worksheet to help you take notes as you do your pre-research and start identifying keywords and ideas.
Understanding your information need will help you choose the best sources.
First, look to your assignment. What are you required to produce and what kind of sources are you required to use? For example, your assignment might say, “You will write an argumentative essay and provide 3 argumentative points. You must use at least one scholarly source from an MCC library database.” Therefore, your information need is the topic of your argumentative essay. Additionally, each of your argumentative points is an information need. You will also need to find at least one scholarly source from an MCC library database.
Depending on your assignment, your instructor may provide you with required information needs. For example, in a Geology class research paper on national parks, the instructor may require that you include in your paper specific information about the park, such as park history, geology of the park, flora and fauna, and park activities. Each of those items is an information need.
For this module, we will examine research for an argumentative essay about student loans.
In the next few sections, you'll learn how to:
When starting with a broad topic like student loans, it’s important to take the time to explore that topic to learn about all aspects of it. This is called pre-research.
Pre-research will provide you with a good understanding of a broad topic so you can identify keywords, narrow down the topic, and form a thesis statement or research question. You’re just looking for ideas and inspiration at this point, not sources.
As you do your pre-research, be sure to take notes! Seeing your keywords written down can help you make connections between keywords and ideas, which may then help you form a thesis statement and possibly even argumentative points.
You’ll learn more about the benefits of using MCC library databases throughout this module, but the databases Opposing Viewpoints and Credo Reference are especially helpful for finding background information on a broad topic. Watch the videos on the left to learn how to use those databases for pre-research.
Through our pre-research, we found that the debt from student loans can cause financial stress for families and have long-term effects like postponing life events, saving less for retirement, even impacting the state of the overall economy. We also saw some ideas for how student loans can be reformed to have a meaningful impact on peoples' lives. Based on what we learned through pre-research, our thesis statement will be:
Student loan debt causes great financial burden and should be reformed to provide long-term relief.
Our information need now is much more specific: we need sources that 1) describe the financial impact of student loan debt on students and their families and 2) serve as evidence to support our arguments for student loan reform.