Shaw University Library Guides: Divinity Graduate Programs: Research Help

Just Beginning? Start Here!

Learning how to conduct research at a collegiate level is a learned skill, and we're here to help! Use this page to find tools and resources that will help you start your research journey, whether it's your very first college research assignment or your fiftieth.

Learn the process

ProQuest's Research Companion includes a search aid, source evaluation aid, citation builder, and revision aid
Purdue Owl's Writing a Research Paper webpage covers what a research paper is, how to choose a topic, how to begin, and starting your research

Library Quick Links

Helpful Links

Interrogating Texts: Six Reading Habits to Develop in Your First College Year
How to read critically and deliberately.
Evaluating Sources
Tips on the next step of the research process after finding your sources: evaluating their quality and usefulness.

Step One: Choose Your Topic

The first step when starting research is to pick a topic or a question to guide your search. Watch the video below to understand how to choose and refine your topic, ensuring it isn't too broad or too narrow.

Step Two: Starting Your Research

Learn about turning your research topic into keywords for a strategic search.

If you would like to practice finding keywords, check out this free tutorial. With several examples, you can figure out how to identify keywords from a topic or question.

A few search tips in addition to those offered in the videos on this page:

Watch your spelling. Not every catalog or database will correct your spelling like Google.
Use filters. Filters offer a range of criteria to narrow your search results. Some are available on the page where you enter your search terms, and some are available on the left side of your list of search results. Look out for:
- Full text - A full electronic copy is available.
- Peer reviewed - Articles of higher quality for research because they have been reviewed by other experts in the author's field.
- Format - Whether the resource is a book, article, video, etc.
- Language - If you only speak English, filter out anything in another language.
- Publication date - To filter older resources if currency is important for your topic.
Find a good article and use it to adjust your search. Once you find an article that's perfect for your topic, use the following to find more resources like it:
- Subjects - Sometimes they are even linked enabling an immediate search.
- Find new search keywords using terms from the resource's title or abstract.
- References - Find the sources that this resource cites. In a database, they are often linked if available
- Related items - Some databases suggest other resources that they think are on a similar topic.
Save your resources as you go. It's very frustrating to try to find something twice; as you research, save resources that might be useful later. Catalogs and databases provide options for saving, emailing, downloading, and citing their resources.

Watch the above video to learn about searching tricks that help narrow your results.