Where can I find background reading on my topic?

• Why should I do background reading?
• Where should I look for background information?
• What do I look for?

• Look for keywords, phrases, and concepts associated with your topic that you can use to construct searches for books and articles.
  
  
• Look for major theories associated with your topic and try to tell if most authors agree on these theories, or if there is some controversy.
  
  
• Look for authors who show up in a lot of references. Search for books and articles by these authors.
  
  
• Use the bibliographies included in your background sources. Books and articles cited in background sources can be good starting points for further research.
  

      

Researching A Term Paper home