Researching a subject or topic, and therefore writing an essay or assignment or thesis requires some application and effort. You can't just Google it!. Research requires a number of different steps:
All of these steps, and the overall planning of an assignment are all covered iny other sections in the Digital Library
Start by writing down a topic that interests you. Then write what you know about it. Keep it broad to begin with.
Brainstorming is a way of generating ideas and organising your thoughts on a topic. Use it to develop some questions that explore different aspects of the topic. You could think about such as aspects as
As you find more information about the topic, you can refine the topic or change it and develop it until you have a final topic that you're happy to proceed with
See the Search Process section of the Library which discusses how to create search keywords and where to search for them
See the Effective Searching section of the Library which discusses how to improve your searching skills by providing some tips for searching web resources and suggestions for improving general Internet searching
See the Evaluating Source section of the Library, which discussed how to assess the credibility of the sources you find (especially those on the general Internet)
The Thinking Critically page of the Academic Writing section covers critical thinking: "thinking about thinking" - deciding whether is something is true by thinking about the evidence for and against it.
The Reading Scholarly Articles page of the Academic Writing section will help you decode and understand articles from scholarly journals
