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HLTH 3: Women's Health

A library research guide to help HLTH 3 students find resources needed for their projects.

Getting Started

Getting Started

Research projects can be intimidating, but it helps to have a plan of action in place.  Breaking it down by steps, even if you go back and forth between the steps a few times, can make the process seem much less overwhelming.  To the right is a basic list of the steps involved in a general research project or paper for HLTH.  Click on the steps to get some brief information about what that step entails.

The Research Process

The Research Process

Before starting an assignment, make sure that you have read it through completely and asked your professor for clarification on any parts that may be confusing.  Create a "plan of action" or "To Do" list with dates. to make the assignment less overwhelming.

Examples of questions to ask:

  • What are the due dates?
  • How many sources do I need?
  • What citation style will I use?
  • What do I need to do with the sources I find (speech, paper, poster, annotated bibliography, etc.)?

A good topic is….

  • Interesting to you.
  • Explainable in 3 - 4 words.
  • Controversial or problematic (i.e. addresses a social issue).
  • In-line with the assignment guidelines.

Check out the following popular online magazines that offer information on women's health issues.  These are written for the general public by journalists (not experts in the field).  These are a great place to get an introduction to a topic, but you will need to turn to more scholarly sources for more in-depth, credible, and academic information. 

Before using any of these sources as a resource, make sure it meets the CRAAP criteria (See "Evaluating Materials" below).

Use these materials to learn more about a topic and to write or present about the topic. Use materials in your writing by citing directly using quotation marks, paraphrasing sentences or paragraphs; or by summarizing the entire item. Always make sure to use an in-text citation after each quote, paraphrase, or summary of an item, then have the full citation for the item you used in your Bibliography to avoid plagiarism.

Examples of resources:

  • Peer Reviewed Articles - find using periodical databases
  • Scholarly Articles - find using periodical databases
  • Books - find using the library catalog
  • Reference - Find using ereference databases and library catalog
  • Health videos/educational DVDs - Find using video databases
  • Credible websites - Find using Google

Evaluate each resource that you come across, including websites, by asking the following questions:

Current?  Is this current to my topic?

References? Does the sources support itself with quality references?

Appropriate  Does the source meet the needs of the assignment?

Authority?  Is the author or entity an expert and qualified to write on this topic?

Purpose?  Is this item written for the general public or for scholarly reasons?

This is where you combine your own ideas with what you have learned from the resources/materials you found on your topic to tell the story of the issue or topic.  A great way to start this step is to create an outline, using the information you gathered from the resources, of what you would like to write about or present on the topic.  

A great resource for students having trouble writing, is our on-campus Tutorial Center.

You must cite the sources that you use to avoid plagiarism. All direct quotes, paraphrases, and summaries must be cited. In other words, all ideas or facts taken from some other writer, even though in your own words, must be cited. All creative works are copyrighted material, so it is PLAGIARISM if you use ideas from a resource without citing that resource

For each source collect…

  1. Author(s) and/or Editor(s).
  2. Date of publication.
  3. Article title.
  4. Publication Title (title of overall item that the article or item was published within).
  5. Publication information; including, edition, volume, pages, place, & publisher.
  6. URL or database name (if found online).

*Not all sources will have all of these elements & some sources may need additional elements, but this should be enough to get you started in Noodletools or to at least be able to track down your source.

View our Citation Help Library Guide for more information on citing and the different styles