The College Student’s Research Companion: Finding, Evaluating, and Citing the Resources You Need To Succeed

In this new edition of her research guide, librarian and English instructor Quaratiello (formerly at St. Anselm Coll.; Rachel Carson: A Biography) offers college students invaluable guidance on approaching the research process with intentionality and locating quality resources to support their arguments. Quaratiello argues that while Google is a go-to resource for beginning researchers, it doesn’t always provide access to substantive, verified, and pertinent sources. Luckily, excellent alternative search engines are available, and Quaratiello is here to help. This clearly laid-out book guides students through the beginning of the research process—from defining their topic to selecting and evaluating sources, conducting searches, and quoting, paraphrasing, and citing. The section on evaluating informational sources is superb; here Quaratiello encourages researchers to consider essential questions—the what, who, when, why, and how of each resource they encounter. Her explanations of keyword searching, Boolean operators, and field-specific searching allow users to make the most of their research material. Some of the book’s information on avoiding plagiarism and the differences between quoting and paraphrasing is rather basic, but in the current age of AI-generated information, it may bear repeating.