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SUNY Erie Library Resource Center

Resources for Research

Quick guide for writing a strong thesis for your research paper.

Welcome!

Hello EN102! This is Joanna Gaff, your course librarian. The tools collected on this page should help you with each step of your research paper project. I hope you find some useful resources while working on your paper. 

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to message me in Blackboard or email me at gaffj@ecc.edu for help! I'm happy to talk through email, on the phone, or do a video chat with you!

Writing a Thesis

Writing a thesis can be a daunting task! It's the first step in your research and will set up your paper. Here are some resources to help your craft a strong thesis.

Finding Sources

Beginning the research process and finding sources from library databases will give you a strong informational foundation as you write you paper. Below are some links to the library's resources and useful science databases to start your research. 

When you are adding search terms I recommend starting pretty broadly and narrowing as you get further along in the research process. 

APA Tools

Make sure you use APA style when writing your paper, doing in text citations, and creating your reference list. At the bottom of this section you will find a tutorial the ECC librarians made to help you make sure all the elements of your paper use APA formatting guidelines.

I recommend using the "Cite" tools in Primo or the databases to grab a citation for your reference list (email me for help with this!), but you can use these tools to make your references or learn more about formatting.