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Buena Vista University

OBVU100 University Seminar / Bengtson

This guide is designed for the students in Dr. Bengtson's section of University Seminar.

Steps to doing research in college

  • Be sure you understand your assignment.  Read the syllabus thoroughly.  Ask your professor to clarify any questions you have.  This is a good time to visit your professor during his or her office hours.  You'll pick up some valuable ideas about your professor's expectations.

  • Be prepared to have some independence when it comes to choosing your topic.  Obviously you need to choose a topic that fits the class, but college professors are not likely to assign you a topic.  You may need your professor to okay your topic idea.  Take any advice they give your very seriously.

  • Be ready to narrow your topic.  It is common to realize as you learn more about a topic that it is too broad to be covered adequately in a short research paper.  Better to narrow your topic to one population, one geographic place, or one era of history than do a superficial overview.  Don't rewrite the encyclopedia!

  • Don't procrastinate.  No, you probably don't work better under pressure.  Late night short-cuts may get you in trouble with unintentional plagiarism and lower quality work that isn't improving your writing, researching or reasoning skills or your GPA!  Budget your time to do your best work.  If you need deadline pressure to get yourself motivated, ask a friend or a family member to impose some intermediate deadlines and then treat them seriously!

  • Don't procrastinate, part 2. Doing research for a speech, presentation or paper is usually not the neat linear process that you envision.  It is messy and repetitive.  Your research focus may change.  You may think you are done doing research and then discover that you need additional sources to support your writing.  You may forget to write down the author's name of a key source.  Your computer could crash before you hit SAVE.  Things will happen.  This is all normal.  Allow time for the unexpected.

  • PROOFREAD YOUR WORK. Read it out loud slowly to yourself. Ask someone else to look it over and made suggestions.

  • Make an appointment with a writing tutor at the CAE.  Don't just hand in "word salad"!  Make that writing flow smoothly.

Need help? Email library@bvu.edu or chat with a BVU Librarian.

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