Composition II

Professor Connolly
Spring 2007

 

Getting Started
Finding Books
Finding Articles
What is a Scholarly Article?
Web site Searching & Evaluating
Putting it all Together

 

Getting Started

I need background information on my topic -- where should I start?

  • Electronic Reference Books
    • xreferplus - An online collection of 150 reference books covering many disciplines. Click here for a list of titles
    • Gale Virtual Reference Library - an online collection of reference books, including Countries and Their Cultures, Dictionary of American History, Encyclopedia of Sociology, Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law, among other titles.
    • Britannica Online A good source of background information and bibliographies. Also available in book form in the Reference collection: R031 B862N1991

General Resources for the Research Paper

  • The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America, Reference R 323.1196 E56
  • Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice, Reference R 364.03 E56
  • Encyclopedia oMarriage and the Family, Reference R 306.803 E56
  • Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education, Reference R 372.2103 E56
  • The Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism, Reference R 306.4460973 E56
  • The Encyclopedia of American Immigration, Reference R 304.87303 E56
  • Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations, Reference R 327.73 E56F
  • Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, R 305.8 H339
  • Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia, Reference R 306.703 H918
  • International Encyclopedia of Communications, Reference R 302.2 I61
  • International Encyclopedia of Population, R 304.6 I61
  • Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, Reference R 305.403 R869
  • St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Reference R 973.9 S143

How else can reference books help me?

  • There are often bibliographies at the end of their articles; these bibliographies can lead you to other useful books and articles.
  • How can I find more reference books on my topic?
  • Try browsing the Reference section.
  • Browse the shelves around a particular book you like; call numbers tend to keep books on like topics together.
  • Search I-Share Online using your search term combined with the word "encyclopedia" or "dictionary."
Finding Statistics
  • Statistical Abstract of the United States, Reference R 317.3 U58S
  • A Statistical Portrait of the United States: Social Conditions and Trends, Reference R 306.0973 S797
  • Datapedia of the United States, 1790-2005: America Year by Year, Reference R 317.3 D96d 2001
Useful Book Series
  • Current Controversies
  • Contemporary World Issues
  • Opposing Viewpoints
  • Taking Sides
    • These books discuss the pros and cons of a topic.
    • To find books in these series, simply do a search for the title of the series in I-Share Online.

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Finding Books in the A.C. Buehler Library

How do I find books on my topic?

  • Use I-Share Online to find books held in the Elmhurst College library as well as books owned by 65 other Illinois libraries.
    • Quick Searches A good way to start looking for books.
    • You can either look for particular items (such as a particular title), or you can do keywords searching.
    • Use the main words describing your topic. For example, to find books about phonics, type the word phonics (with or without capitals). The word phonics can be anywhere in the description of the item, like the name of the publisher.
    • To do a more focused search on, say, phonics and whole language learning, select Boolean, and type in phonics and "whole learning
  • Browse Subject Searches
    • A more precise way of searching.
    • I-Share Online uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (or LC subject headings) to arrange and organize information.
    • Subject headings are very specific; you can guess what they might be, but you can't make them up.
    • Some examples of subject headings:
      • Tattooing
      • Titanic (Steamship)
      • Sex on television
      • Chicago Cubs (Baseball team) -- History
  • Guided Keyword Searches
    • Allow you more flexibility.
    • Click the appropriate tab, and fill in the blanks as desired.
    • You can change your searching options to look for either some or all of the words you've typed in, and to look in different areas of the item's catalog record.
    • For example, select all of these and type eating disorders treatment.

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Locating Articles in Library Resources

  • Which article databases are good starting places for my search?

    • CQ Researcher ~ An excellent source for current hot topics. Each individual issue contains historical background, a timeline, current status, and potential future developments. The bibliographies are especially helpful in finding useful sources.
    • Academic Search Premier ~ A good place to start. Includes references to scholarly as well as popular periodicals.
    • Periodical Abstracts ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and some full text for magazine and journal articles.
    • WilsonSelectPlus ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and full text for a variety of magazines and journals.

  • Where can I find newspaper articles?

You can also call (630) 617-3173 or email the Reference Department to inquire about a specific title or ask a question.

Use the Find It! button to help you look through our databases and catalog for an article.

If you cannot find an article at Elmhurst, you can request it through our online Interlibrary Loan article request form. Inter library loan can take 7-10 days.

 

Scholarly and Popular Articles: What's the Difference?

Scholarly publications publish journals. Popular press publications publish magazines. Journal articles and magazine articles are very different from each other. Some of the differences are apparant in the following areas:

Audience: Who was the article written for?

Author: What kind of job job does the author have? What are the author's credentials?

Language: How does this article sound? What educational level is the article written for?

Content: What is being written about? Does the author write with bias?

References: Where does the author get his/her information? Is the information quoted easy to find on your own?

Look at other factors like:

  • publisher
  • editorial process
  • advertising content of publication
  • overall look of the print version (if available)

Read this to learn how to distinguish scholarly journals from other periodicals.

If you really get stuck and can't figure out if a publication is scholarly or popular using the criteria listed above, you can use use one of the three techniques listed below:

  • Look at the reference book like "Magazines for Libraries" located at the Reference Desk
  • Look at the publisher's or journals web site in the "About Us" (or similar) section
  • Ask a librarian at the Reference Desk (Warning! The reference librarians will employ one or both of the two techniques listed above if we are really stumped!)

 

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Websites and Evaluating Resources

Why should I evaluate web sites? Can't I just trust everyone's website?

What should I look for in a trustworthy web site?

Where can I go for trustworthy sites that have already been evaluated?

How can I find other web sites?

Can't I just do all of my research on the Internet (I thought everything there was free and full-text)?

Despite what some would have you believe, not everything is available for free on the Internet. Don't rely on the web as your only source of information. Choose web sites carefully. Use them to support your articles and books, not to replace them.

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Putting it All Together

I've found all this stuff -- now what?

Who's going to help me write this paper?

How do I do the citations at the end of my paper?

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This web page was originally created by Ayanna Gaines and adapted and updated by Peg Cook
on February 28th 2007