FTS: Psychology of Gender: Start

Read your assignment carefully and think about what steps you might want to take next. You probably will need to explore a topic area before you decide exactly where you want to go with it. Do some general searches of your topic area and sort out the various approaches writers have taken. Look for overviews and surveys of the topic that put the various schools of thought or approaches in context. You may start out knowing virtually nothing about your topic, but after scanning what's out there you should have several ideas worth following up.

Be sure to take advantage of the superb Writing Center tutors (who can help you think through an assignment) and the reference librarians(who can point you toward the best information resources). Also, try one of these strategies to get the big picture of your topic:

• Put your topic into a different version of Google, Google Scholar. You can limit your search to recent publications using options on the left-hand side of the screen. Notice that you can see how often a particular work has been cited and can click on that link to see who has been working in the same area more recently. You can also see which of the articles are available through the library. A drawback to this approach is that the results may be too specialized for you to see patterns easily.

• Put your topic into Academic Search Premier, one of the library's databases. Again, the purpose is not to find sources you will use, but it should reveal different ways to think about a topic. This is particularly helpful if your topic is scholarly because this database indexes core journals in a variety of subjects as well as newspapers and popular magazines. You can even switch between magazines and scholarly journals using a handy link on the left-hand side of your search. You may also want to select a range of current years using the handy date slider on the right to focus on up-to-date sources.

• Want a really good tip? Use the library's hidden treasures: specialized reference books. In far more depth than Encylopaedia Britannica or with more expertise than most articles in Wikipedia, these scholarly resources provide excellent and expert overviews of topics and - as a bonus - will tell you which sources are the most valuable ones. A few minutes browsing a reference work will give you lots of ideas. To get a sense of what reference books are available, take a look at our Resources for Majors and Courses page - or swing by the reference desk for a personalized list of suggestions.  

Many students turn to Wikipedia for background information because it is easy to use, vast, and so popular its articles often turn up within the first few links of a Web search. For some topics, particularly in the realm of popular culture, the articles can be uniquely valuable. However, there are two things to note.

First, because authorship is not limited to experts, but is open to anyone, there are times the articles are written by enthusiastic amateurs. Some articles are better than others.

Second, the quality varies considerably depending on who is interested in editing articles on a particular topic. Quite a number of scientists and lawyers have spent time improving articles on topics they understand well, but other subjects may have only skimpy articles. Apart from subjects, the Wikmedia Foundation that manages Wikipedia has expressed concern about the lack of diversity among editors, including a small percentage of editors who are women, which some feel results in uneven coverage of subjects of interest to or about women.

In general, Wikipedia is often a great place to get basic background information and often will provide links to useful sources. However, it is good for background only, not as a major source for a paper. For college research you should go beyond general encyclopedias, whether online or in print.

After you have a sense of general aspects of your topic, you will need to narrow it to a more focused and manageable.  Try these strategies to make the most of this part of the process:

• Make a list of possible issues to research. Use your initial searching, class discussions, texts, personal interests, conversations with friends, and discussions with your teacher for ideas. Start writing them down - you'd be surprised how much faster they come once you start writing.
• Invent questions. Do two things you come across seem to offer interesting contrasts? Does one thing seem intriguingly connected to something else? Is there something about the topic that surprises you? Do you encounter anything that makes you wonder why? Do you run into something that makes you think, "No way! That can't be right." Chances are you've just uncovered a good research focus.
• Draft a proposal for research. Sometimes a teacher will ask you for a formal written proposal. Even if it isn’t required, it can be a useful exercise. Write down what you want to do, how you plan to do it, and why it's important. You may well change your topic entirely by the time its finished, but writing down where you plan to take your research at this stage can help you clarify your thoughts and plan your next steps.
• Talk it over. Tell your roommate or some other willing victim what you're working on. Sometimes just explaining the idea can help you clarify for yourself what direction seems most interesting.

Research Help:

• Visit the Reference Desk (main floor) (M-F 10:30-2:30)
• Chat with a librarian (M-F10:30-2:30)
• E-mail: folke@gustavus.edu (please include your name and the best way to contact you)
• Make an Appointment: schedule an appointment for a one-on-one consultation with a librarian
• Fill out the Research Next Steps form; a librarian will respond with research suggestions and advice