Plan on several rounds of research As your thesis evolves, you will find that you need more sources to support your arguments. Most big research projects include at least 3 rounds of research:
Check the footnotes/bibliography of every book, article, or website you find that is even vaguely on your topic. This is a big part of how professors do research and can save you a ton of time. See Finding Articles from a Bibliography and Finding Books from a Bibliography for a reminder of how to find the full text.
Interlibrary Loan is essential. If you complete your LIN 411 project without getting anything from outside this library, you probably haven't done great research. If we don't own an article that looks good to you, request it!
Search in multiple databases. This is especially essential for the topic of this class. Bilingualism is a topic of interest to many disciplines and the best databases will vary by topic.
Always read the abstract. It can be hard to tell what an article is really about based on just the title. If it looks like it is anywhere close to your topic, it is worth taking that extra minute to read the abstract.
Search using both Spanish and English search terms. Do Spanish first, because you will likely get fewer results (because of the focus of our databases on scholarship in English). Then repeat in English.
Keep organized. You are going to have a lot of sources. Set up a system for keeping track of them that works for you. Some of our databases have folder systems for saving sources. We also have a university subscription to Endnote or you could use a free option like Zotero or Mendeley.
Love Google Scholar? You need to set it up to talk to WCU Libraries (find Library Links under the Settings option). That will allow you to access articles for which .
Ask for help! If you feel stuck in your research, set up an appointment with me.
It can be tempting to just stick with articles, but scholarly books have a different focus than articles and will help you in different ways.
I like Google Books, but you can also use WorldCat.org, or even Amazon. If you find something we don't have, our EZ-Borrow service is free and delivers books in 2-3 business days.
Did you know that you can get posters printed at the library? The IMC on the lower level of Green Library has a high quality poster printer and low fees for printing. See their page on poster printing for details, as well as lots of great tips on what to do (or not do) on your poster!