Are you interested in something? Maybe you think you know a little about it already? Wouldn’t it be cool to know more? Maybe you can take it a step further and become an expert yourself.
The question is, where do you start? Anyone can Google it, or read some background about it on Wikipedia. What will make you stand out?
Background Info: Finding an area to focus on and a question to answer
The Virtual Reference Library is a great place to start. It gives you articles about topics written by experts themselves. Anytime an expert writes about their topic they will mention the big issues and controversies surrounding it. There is where you’ll find an interesting question to answer and something you can look into investigating yourself.
Dig deeper
Questia School is another virtual library, but the difference is it gives you access to 80,000 full-length, published books that you won’t find otherwise online. So, it gives you more depth on your topic. See Mr. McGrath for help logging in, and using Questia School to your advantage.
Books in the MVRHS Library: Use the blue search bar above (check “books”) to see if we have something you can use.
Keep Going
As a citizen of the state of Massachusetts, you have access to all of the electronic resources in the Boston Public Library. In depth sources including JStor give you access to thousands of published sources. To access them, you’ll need a BPL Library card number. If you don’t have one, you can get it for free, practically instantly, by visiting their ecard sign-up page.
Organize your sources
Login to Easybib using your MVRHS Google Docs account to access their awesome note-taking and expanded citing features. It literally makes it easier.
And Finally….Ask for help. Spread the word!
Ask about your topic. After all, it’s something you’re interested in learning about, right? Tell people what you know, and ask for help. You’ll be surprised what you’ll learn just by asking.
