CSP 560: Student Characteristics and College Impact: Welcome

This guide and resources will help you:

• Become familiar with standard information retrieval tools in CSP
• Distinguish between type of material and search processes
• Build a list of keywords from subjects and information from material
• Create and execute and perform searches for best practice literature
• Determine ways to increase result quality
• Save the full-text of electronic items
• Manage contents with Delicious, My Ebsco Host, and Zotero

• I like Wikipedia. I know that it has its limitations, but I enjoy reading articles and discovering where the contentious issue are in a subject area. Do you  know what Wikipedia article focuses on CSP?  
• For more on Wikipedia, read William Badke's "What to do with Wikipedia."

• False research assumes that the task is merely to gather data and synthesize it. Thus the typical student “research” project involves amassing data, reading and absorbing it, then regurgitating it back onto a fresh piece of paper. (p. 17, Badke, Research Strategies)
• Genuine research injects an analytical question. All genuine research starts with a question which then can be turned into a thesis statement.
• As you read the articles that you find through the research process, keep in mind that you are developing a working knowledge of the topic. Your research should be directed by the literature and the conversation that has already begun between scholars.
• A common error among graduate students is to create research questions out of thin air, not grounding them in the literature. If you spend time at the beginning reading for working knowledge, you will find that the questions appear, and that they are rooted in real questions that are being researched by scholars.

Are you a member of NASPA? Here are their principles of good practice.

You might also be interested in professional competency areas.

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