Online Resources for Research Essays and Papers

During the prewriting stage of a research essay or paper, students are asked to gather facts and information. Here are online resources.

Research Tips: How to Research

• Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Research

Easy Bibliography and Works Cited Resources for Essay Formats

For these two research essay resources, just fill in the blanks and it will return a correctly formatted citation. Cut and paste into your word processor; don’t forget to alphabetize by the author’s last name (MLA) or put in chronological order (APA).

• Easy Bib
• Citation Machine (click on the left menu)

Word Processor Formatting for MLA or APA

• MLA Essay Formatting Tutorial for MSWord
• APA Essay Formatting Tutorial for MSWord
• 
  Free MLA Essay Template from MSOffice Online

Online Research for Your Essay or Paper

• Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources. The exhaustive list!
• Google Scholar. Searches scholarly and academic journals.
• Bartleby.com.
  Searches for quotes in poetry or in Bartlett’s Quotations, Columbia’s Quotations and other sources.
• Google Images.
  Research For Photos
• Wikipedia is an online resource often used by students doing research for an essay or paper. It is of limited help, because the articles are not written by experts. Check with your teacher to see if you can use this resource in your essay’s citations. Even if it is not allowed, you should still read the Wikipedia overview of your topic. Pay careful attention to the bottom of the article where references and external links are given. Often, these are good resources for your research essay or paper and will be allowed by your teacher.
• American Memory, Library of Congress. This government website is a good place to research American History and has first person accounts of many events.

TIP: How to Handle Facts and Information. Once you’ve found facts and information, Paper Lightning: Prewriting Activities that Spark Creativity has easy-to-use activities on sorting facts into categories or topics for use in your essay.

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