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English 170 Tips for Research

Finding Books Finding Articles Searching the WWW Evaluating Web sites

The tool to use is Carroll library's online catalog.

State your topic:
For example: Has the Bush “War on Terror” increased/decreased recruits to terrorists groups?

What are the major terms or concepts? Write these here:
“war on terror” terrorists recruits

Think of other terms related to your topic:
“Al Qaeda” “ September 11” “ islamic fundamentalism"

Find a book or two on your topic, using these search terms.

Fill in the table with the information from this book:

Author:
Title:
Publisher:
Place of Publication:
Date of Publication:
Other:

Resources for research and avoiding plagiarism:

http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/works_cited
from Duke Libraries : “Guide to Library Research”
http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill28.htm
from Cornell University Library “How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography”
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
from Indiana University Writing Tutorial Services : “Plagiarism – What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It”

Why is it important to cite material you use?

To give credit to the author/originator of the idea(s) To aid your reader in locating the resources you used in your project To avoid plagiarism - Plagiarism is using others' ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.
To place your own thinking in the context of the work of others

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Finding Articles

The tool to use is an article database: Academic Search Premier for this assignment.
(or choose another database for your subject area from the database page)

State your Topic and think of alternate terms:

Example 1: Do standardized tests improve learning?

Search terms: Standardized test* and academic success
Testing and controversy
National competency test

Example 2: Does class size impact learning?

Search terms: Class size and academic success
Class size and grades or achievement
Class size* and elementary education

Develop your topic here:

First concept AND second concept

Alternate term for first concept AND alternate term for second concept

Example of journal article citation:

Title: Standards For What?
Source*: Education Week, 06/20/2001, Vol. 20 Issue 41, p64, 2p, 1bw
Author(s): Reich, Robert B.
Abstract: Argues against the significance of standardized tests in educating students in the United States. Industrial and societal changes that make standardized tests unnecessary in the country; Factors that will help children attain success in the future; Job categories created by the surge of technological developments; Negative effect of standardized tests on students.

*The source line contains information to help you find the full article, including:

Journal Title
Date
Volume/Issue
Length of article
Special features, pictures, etc.

Finding the full text:

To find the full text of this citation or any other citation, try one or both of these steps:

- From the library home page select the Full Text Journals and Newspapers under Find Articles. Type in the Journal Title (make a note of the date of your article)

AND/OR

- From the library home page, choose the In Our Library Catalog and enter the Journal Title to see if we own the article in paper form.

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Searching the World Wide Web (WWW)

What is the Internet?

A vast collection of inter-connected networks, or a network of computer networks. The Internet evolved from that ARPANET of the late 60’s and early 70’s which was developed by the U.S. government for defense purposes.

What is the World Wide Web?

Part of the Internet, the WWW is a system of Internet servers that support documents formatted in a language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) that supports links to other documents, as well as graphics, audio, and video files.

What is a Search Engine?A program that searches for documents on the WWW and creates a database of documents. A search engine works by sending out a spider (robot software) to fetch documents. Each search engine works differently. Some search engines :

Google http://www.google.com Yahoo www.yahoo.com HotBot http://www.hotbot.com

What is a Web Directory?

Think of a Web Directory as a “table of content” to the Web. Examples are: Librarians Index to the Internet: www.lii.org Open Directory http://dmoz.org/ or Internet Scout Report http://www.scout.cs.wisc.edu/ . These databases, while smaller, have been compiled by people. They often include summaries or evaluations of the sites.

What is a URL?

Uniform Resource Locator. It is the website “address” Reading the URL can provide information about a site even before you look at the site itself.. For example, http://www.irs.gov/ The domain name gov indicates a government site. Other top level domain names: .edu (education) .com or .net(commercial or business) gov (government) .org (non-profit organization) .mil (military)

Keeping up on Searching

To learn more about Search Engines:

Search Engine Watch: http://www.searchenginewatch.com.

Search Engine Showdown: http://searchengineshowdown.com/

Searching Tips

Take time to think about what you are looking for. What are the clearest terms to describe the information you need?
Take time to learn about your search tool. Read the “help” on searching.
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase or name. Example, “richard nixon” or “equal rights amendment.”

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Evaluating Web Resources

The Web is a self publishing entity. It is important to evaluate what you find.

Authority

Is the author clearly identified?
Are facts about the author’s qualifications stated?
Is it clear who is sponsoring the page or is there a link to a page describing the sponsoring organization?

Currency and Accuracy

Are sources of factual information clearly listed?
Is the information free of grammatical, spelling and typographical errors?
Has the information been reviewed by editors or peer reviewed?

Coverage/Intent

Is it clear what topics are addressed?
Is the depth of coverage clear?
Is advertising clearly differentiated from the content?
Who is the intended audience?

Why is it important to cite material you find on the web?

To give credit to the author/originator of the idea(s)
To aid your reader in locating the resources you used in your project
To place your own thinking in the context of the work of others
To avoid plagiarism - Plagiarism is using others' ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

A Source with information on Citing online Sources

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We’re here to help.