Citation Workshop for International Students

Online chat service assistance is available between 9am–noon and 1–5pm, Monday–Friday. One-on-one in-person and virtual research appointments are also available to assist you in finding the resources you need for your research assignments. If you don't see a time posted that works for you, contact a librarian directly via email. Finally, check the hours on the home page ("Terrell Main Library Hours & Directions") for service hours.

Here is a good, basic formula for getting started with your research:

• Begin by narrowing down your topic and developing an initial research question.
• Use the keyword brainstorming worksheet to help you tweak your research question, identify keywords and related terms, and keep track of what you find.  
• Search in a library catalog (Summon, OBIS, OhioLINK and/or WorldCat) to find books and reference sources.  These sources will:
  • provide BACKGROUND and CONTEXT
  • REVIEW and SUMMARIZE earlier work
  • help you FOCUS your topic and
  • provide CITATIONS to important books, journal articles, conference papers, interviews, etc.
• Next, search research databases to find articles. The library has hundreds of databases; those listed on this guide are good places to begin.
• You may also wish to use Google Scholar to search the Internet.  This is a great tool for doing cited reference searches.