First-Year Composition

For all first-year composition classes: ENG 101, ENG 107, ENG 102, ENG 108, ENG 105.

Step Three

FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Before jumping directly into searching for sources to answer your research question, it can be useful to look up some background sources so you can learn more about your topic. Gathering basic knowledge about your topic can help you form a better research question and give you inspiration for more information to search for, such as keywords, important events, important figures, or specific ideas. Keywords are single words or short phrases that represent the main concepts in the topic you’re exploring. They can be combined in various ways to generate different search results.

You can learn more about your topic by reading articles or encyclopedia entries, noting any interesting topics or information in bibliographies, and keeping a research notebook on the related topics and keywords you find. This new information will help you identify the main concepts or keywords in your question.

Complete our ASU Library tutorial "Choosing a Topic with Background Research" to get more information on finding background information and narrowing down a topic.

Online Reference Collections

Here is a list of some of the more useful collections of encyclopedias and background sources from the ASU Library.

Gale eBooks
An online collection that contains thousands of encyclopedias and other reference works; this resource is especially good for the humanities.
Sage Knowledge
An online collection of over 40 reference titles from Sage Publications that is especially good for the social sciences and sciences.
CQ Researcher
A collection of reports that offers great in-depth information on all kinds of topical issues.
eBooks on EBSCOHost
An eBook collection of scholarly and reference titles in almost all subject areas, such as education, history, health, sports, and more.

Statistics

Here are some useful resources from the ASU Library for finding statistics:

U. S. Census Information
A collection of statistics on all kinds of things from the U.S. Census. This resource is good for finding sources that bolster your argument.
ProQuest Statistical Insight
A database of statistics gathered from national and international sources that is searchable and very complete.
Statista
A statistics portal that integrates data on markets, industries, media, business, finance, politics, population, opinion, lifestyles, and a wide variety of other areas of interest.

A web search can also retrieve reliable statistics. For example, a Google search using your topic, 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.

Searching for Datasets

In recent months, the U.S. federal government has removed thousands of publicly funded datasets and web pages from official websites. This includes information on climate change, public health, education, and LGBTQ+ issues. If you cannot locate government data or reports that you believe exist, it's possible that they have been taken offline. Fortunately, librarians, archivists, researchers, and others across the nation have been working diligently to try to preserve this information.

If you're searching for government information that seems to have disappeared, please reach out to Ask a Librarian. We will try to guide you to alternative sources and help you access archived data.