Using a Reference book you can find a short essay that can give you important background on your topic. This can be a helpful step because:

1. Books and scholarly articles are often written with the assumption that you already understand the main issues and arguments surrounding your topic. If you don't have this understanding, reading an article about your topic can feel like trying to understand calculus without ever have taken algebra.

2. They often provide you with a bibliography (list of articles and books) that were chosen to assist in further research.

3. Reference books can also provide you with those elusive statistics that can help you strengthen your argument, or sound really good in an introduction.

Finding reference books can be very easy. You can consult the Current Events and Hot Topics guide as a start. For more reference books, just stop by the Reference Desk and ask for help!

For a greater explanation of what type of information you can find in a Reference book, see Finding Background Information.