Undergraduate's Guide to Creating & Communicating Research

This guide is under construction! Feel free to look around, but more content is still being created.

Sam Houston State University recognizes the value of undergraduate scholarship—both for our students and our faculty members. The term “scholarship” is meant in the largest possible sense, embracing all disciplines; at the same time, it is shorthand for a much broader world that encompasses all forms of creative activity, scholarship, application and discovery.

It includes:

• research in the traditional sense (such as a team of scientists working in a laboratory or field setting)
• scholarly works in the humanities and social sciences and
• creative activities engaged in by artists and performers

Before we begin new research, we want to understand what research has already been done. As we think about the question we want to ask, we want a sense of things like:

• Has it been asked before, in whole or in part?
• What research methods have been used to approach an answer?
• What limitations are noted in past studies?
• What populations or factors have been included or omitted in the past?
• Do we have evidence to suggest that previous answers are outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate?

This information about what has been done before will help to shape what we do this time in an attempt to get new or better answers.

Continue reading the pages in this section to learn:

• What do I search for?
• Where do I search?
• Can I get help searching?
• Now what? A Lit Review How-To