Are big papers due soon? Don’t stress out! We’ve got you covered! Writing Support Resources
The CMU Libraries have a variety of resources that will help you at every step of your research papers from start to finish. Writing college research papers is a two-part process involving research and writing, and to successfully complete this joint process, you will need resources to support both parts. Let's start with research.
Broadly speaking, you will need three types of sources, primary, secondary, and tertiary or background. It is important to note that all three types of sources are equally important for writing good research papers.
Primary Sources: Primary sources serve as original evidence. Interestingly, every discipline has its own way of defining what a primary source is. In the humanities and arts, primary sources can be original creative works. They can also be objects created or information written at the time an event actually took place. Some examples are Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Van Gogh’s Café Terrace at Night, or historical records, diaries, or letters. In social sciences, primary sources usually comprise survey data, interviews, or even tax return documents, while in natural sciences they include original research experiments, including discoveries and inventions.
Secondary Sources: These sources are created or written after an event, and they mainly analyze or interpret primary sources. Good examples consist of academic books, scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles, newspaper and magazine articles, videos, statistical sources, and reliable websites.
Tertiary or Background Sources: Tertiary sources primarily provide background information on a topic or an event. They help determine the scope of and define the key terms in your research topic. Subject-specific and general encyclopedias, biographies, specialized dictionaries, and bibliographies make excellent background sources.
Here are some pathways that you can follow to find resources, both scholarly and informative, for writing academic research papers:
Library Smart Search: A keyword search using Smart Search will bring up a plethora of sources including books, journal articles, newspaper or magazine articles, encyclopedias, specialized dictionaries, biographies, and statistical data, to name a few.
Research Databases: You can search databases designed for your subject area to find secondary sources (largely journal articles) on the topic. Articles are sometimes available online in full text, while other times you might need to request them from Documents on Demand at no additional cost.
Research Guides: Knowing exactly which database contains resources related to your topic can be hard at times. To make it easier for you, subject specialist librarians have created online resource guides for almost all subjects taught at CMU. Some of these guides are designed especially for individual courses. Click on the subject link and then on your course designator, for example, ENG 101 or ENG 201, to see your course-specific guide. These guides are linked to your Blackboard course shells, and each guide contains helpful resources under various tabs.
Clarke Historical Library: Located in the Park Library building, the Clarke houses historical records and archival materials on Michigan history and CMU history, among other materials.
Dictionaries: Upon completing research necessary for writing research papers, you will need good dictionaries to select appropriate words and understand their nuances. Perhaps the best English language dictionary is the Oxford English Dictionary, and it is available online from the library. The library holds print dictionaries as well.
Writing Help Guide: Containing many helpful resources, this online resource guide will be of great assistance to you particularly when finishing your papers. Various citation style guides including APA, MLA, Chicago, AMA, and tips on citing AI sources are listed under separate tabs. A tab focusing on plagiari