STEP 3: FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

SUMMARY: Learn more about your topic by reading articles in encyclopedias. Note any interesting topics or information in the bibliographies at the end of the encyclopedia articles and keep a research notebook on the related topics and key words you find. Use this new information to identify the main concepts or keywords in your question.

Before jumping directly into searching for sources to answer your research question, it can be useful to look up some background sources to give you more knowledge and insight into your topic.  Background sources are just that: They provide a summary, or background, about the topic.  Gathering basic knowledge about your topic can help you form a better research question and give you more ideas, such as keywords and important events or ideas, to search for. 

Review our tutorial to better prepare you for using background resources.

Finding and Using Background Research

• U. S. Census Information

  Find statistics on all kinds of things from the US Census! Good for bolstering an argument.
• ProQuest Statistical Insight

  A database of statistics gathered from all kinds of sources. Searchable and very complete. National and international.

   

  A search of the Web can also retrieve reliable statistics.  For example, a Google search using your topic and the operator "site:.gov" and the keyword "statistics" will return statistics from all kinds of government sources, from the federal government down to cities and towns.  For example:  Immigration United States site:.gov statistics.