While my approach towards research varies by topic and assignment, the methodologies I have developed are largely intentional. If I do not know much about a subject, my first strategy is to use a search engine like Google to gain some basic contextual knowledge. While most of this information is not necessarily academic-quality, it allows me to develop keywords to search for in the next step of the process. After I feel that I have an adequate understanding of the scope of my research, I use this knowledge to search for information in the Library database as well as online resources like JSTOR, MUSE and Google Scholar. These searches allow me to understand what arguments have been made about the topic, as well as get a handle on any major disagreements or dialogues in the field. While I will cite the scholarly academic sources I find from these steps, I then also use the footnotes of these works to find primary source materials.

While the reading in the workbook was mostly review, the questions for critiquing primary sources were very usefully articulated. Often by the times I have found primary sources, I do not necessarily use external and internal criticisms necessary to determine its authenticity, bias and relevancy. As we do further research with primary sources in the archives, I will definitely use these questions to better my research habits.