How to Be a Peer Research Consultant: A Guide for Librarians and Students by 
College in Prison: Reading in an Age of Mass Incarceration by 
Critical Perspectives on Teaching in Prison: Students and Instructors on Pedagogy Behind the Wall by 
Forced Passages Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime by 
Reading Is My Window: Books and the Art of Reading in Women's Prisons by Research is not passive reporting, it is a search for answers. A research question is what drives your research project; it is something that you want to know about your topic and it is something you want to explore and try to answer in your research project.
Research typically begins with a topic that has piqued your curiosity. When you're researching a topic, you typically are interested in questions of who, what, where and when.
As you learn more about your chosen topic, however, you'll discover that scholars may have different approaches and arguments about the topic, and you'll start to ask your own research questions. Research questions typically begin with why or how.
When you've selected a research question to explore and are ready to make an argument as to how to answer it, you'll come up with a thesis.
This form is for FEPPS students to fill out to request research assistance from University of Puget Sound student-assistants.
A concept map is:
Use a concept map to:
Concept mapping is a great strategy to use as you develop your research question. Concept maps are a tool to help you:
Ask yourself: what do I already know about my topic? what am I curious about? what kind of information do I need, and where am I likely to find it?
From a disciplinary perspective, think about what kind of questions scholars and experts in that discipline are interested in, how they would ask those questions and what evidence they would use to make their argument.
Finally, consider what you know about the resources available to you, the types of sources that would be most helpful for you, and where might be most fruitful for you to begin your search. Are you looking for primary sources, such as historical newspaper articles? Artistic works? Literature? If you're following up on the scholarly conversation around your topic, do you need to look for work by historians? Art historians? Sociologists?
The process is simple: start with the subject of your research question in the center, then:
Do some background research on your topic to help create a concept map. Feel free to consult the Internet, an encyclopedia, course readings, or a librarian to help explore a topic. It may be through this background research that you will stumble upon a gap that you want to explore! Keep revising your map as you learn more about your topic.
You can use the worksheets int the folder linked below to assist with your research consultations and chats with your peers. Please let me know if you need anything printed or if you need help understanding how to use these worksheets. They are good for all stages of the research process from narrowing down research terms, understanding what work sources do in a research product, and how to organize and synthesize information.
BEAM is an acronym intended to help you think about the various ways researchers might use sources when writing a researched argument. Joseph Bizup, an English professor at Boston University, outlined the framework in a 2008 article. The idea has since been refined and adapted by many others.
SIFT is a method of evaluating online information developed by Mike Caulfield of Washington State University Vancouver. This infographic shows the steps of SIFT: Stop, investigate the source, find trusted coverage, trace claims, quotes and media to the original context.
Learn more about SIFT:
This video (3.5 minutes) from University of Louisville Libraries Citizen Literacy Project describes the practice of "lateral reading," a strategy used by professional fact-checkers to investigate the reliability of online sources.
Prisons are banning books and information at a rate that outpaces schools and libraries combined. Equitable access to books, information, and education can have transformative impacts on incarcerated individuals. If you want to keep being involved in work that provides information resources to incarcerated individuals, I recommend becoming a reference volunteer for the Prison Library Support Network (PLSN). PLSN is an information-based collective founded in 2016 to support incarcerated people by organizing networks for sharing resources and building capacity for the movement for prison abolition in libraries, archives, and other knowledge-based institutions.
