Some advice that I would give to incoming freshmen about research would be:
1. Don’t plagiarize! There will be severe consequences if you do.
2. Always check the authority of authors to see whether or not they are qualified to be writing about the topic you are researching on.
3. Familiarize yourself with shortcuts such as quotations, and, or that might be available on search engines like Google.
4. When reading a piece of research, always record basic citations and notes so you can save time with your work. It’s good to be organized.
5. Don’t always use the first source you see in Google, you may have to refine your search or dig deeper into the results to get a better source.
6. Peruse around the school website and if you find that your school subscribes to certain databases, use them to help with future research projects because they make things more convenient.
7. Be able to distinguish between what is a book source and what is a journal source. Each source has its own benefits and drawbacks.
8. Certain databases have field searches which help narrow down your search. It’s good to be able to understand what each field search does.
9. Sometimes current events are so recent that there are no peer reviewed journal articles written about them because those take a few months or years to write. It’s important to realize that information is published at different rates depending on the medium (i.e. Magazine article, book, journal article.)
10. Finally, learn to create APA or MLA citations in order to prevent plagiarism. Make sure that you know which one your teacher is asking for because each citation is styled differently.
