Tacoma Community College Library: LS 101: Adams, M.: Background information

The power of background information

Research, write, and speak from a position of knowledge

Using background information to become more knowledgeable about your topic is an important step in your research process:

Background information helps you understand:

The foundation of your topic. For example, if you are researching the impact of livestock production on the environment, you would first want to have a good understanding of how livestock production works in the United States.
The context of your topic: For example, you would also want to know the history of livestock production, and how it has changed over time.
The issues surrounding your topic: For example, you also might want to learn about "overgrazing."
The important people, places, things and ideas related to your topic: For example, who are the stakeholders? Who and what is impacted by this topic? Who cares about this topic? Who are the people doing important work related to livestock production and the environment?
The important vocabulary related to your topic: For any topic it is important that we understand the current language used to discuss topics, and to know any specialized vocabulary needed to write about your topic more successfully. Noting this vocabulary will also help you search for more and better sources throughout your research process.

All of this will also help you define, refine, and narrow your research topic, your research question, and will help you move toward developing a valid thesis - and it will make managing your research process a little more effective and efficient.

Note about using reference resources in college classes:

When you are in 100-level courses your instructors will probably allow you to use some reference as sources in your papers. Let reference sources help you understand your topic before beginning the bulk of your research process, and let reference help you write important background information in your Introductions, but then, it's time to let go of reference and let other kinds of sources inform your paper or presentation, such as books, videos, websites, and magazine, newspaper, and journal articles.

In 200-level courses and beyond, you can still use reference to get your own background knowledge in order and to help you narrow your topics, but do not use them as sources for papers in your more advanced courses: You will be graduating to using scholarly books and research articles by that time. Congratulations!

Reference sources

It is always important to seek general, background information about a topic before your start your narrowed research process.

For example, if your topic is about the impact of commercial livestock production on the environment, it is important that you first understand something about the history of livestock production in general.
The same is true for anything else: If your paper is about _________________, it is important that you understand something about the history of ______________.

Reference resources are designed for this purpose.

The TCC Library holds two significant reference source databases:

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
This is a database of digitized subject encyclopedias and dictionaries. This is the perfect place to start getting your background information, start narrowing your topic, and collecting important vocabulary.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
This database holds hundreds of weekly reports about social, economic and political issues. Every issue features an in-depth report on one topic, one important question. While CQ Researcher is neither an encyclopedia or a dictionary (reference) it does provide excellent background information on issues that may be important to the topics you choose to research.
Biography Reference Center This link opens in a new window
You may also find this database useful if there are specific public figures associated with your topic.

Finding reference articles using Gale e-Books

This is where your list of key terms comes in handy (see the tab above).

You can often use the main topic of any question you are tempted to "ask" the database: Typing "What is the history of commercial livestock production?" does not work very well in databases.

But you can find a good key term within your question: In this case, simply LIVESTOCK is going to get you what you need (and more) especially when using a reference resource like Gale eBooks:

Research and serendipity

The most compelling part of using Gale e-Books, or any reference resource is something called "serendipity" - finding things that you didn't even know you were looking for!

Use Gale e-books to find out what you were looking for, and to find out things you didn't know you were looking for. Pay attention to the names of the books that each article comes from. That will help you understand HOW the topic will be described - in this case the top article describes the topic of livestock production in a cultural or historical context. The second article is from a science encyclopedia. so it will describe livestock from a more scientific point of view.

Read two or three articles on your topic from different kinds of encyclopedias.

Serendipity can help guide you to researching unexpected and interesting facets of your topic.

Look at many search results in Gale e-books (and other databases). Sometimes those results will help you narrow your topic, or at least help you develop your vocabulary related to your topic. Here we learn about one narrower aspect of livestock production (and possibly how the intensity of demand for livestock foods may impact the environment):

Finding articles using CQ Researcher

Remember that CQ Research is a kind of reference resource that explores the political and social aspects of an issue. And also remember to not judge an article by its title! While this article does not include our key term LIVESTOCK it is nonetheless useful to helping us understand the background of our topic and perhaps helping us narrow our research question.