Welcome to our virtual class. We are going to begin with the idea of academic analysis. Analyzing academically is a skill you will need in any writing assignment during college, and it is one of the biggest differences between high school and college research/writing. Another big difference is the use of scholarly literature instead of, or in addition to, popular sources. We will include helpful information about scholarly vs. popular articles and how to use library databases to pick a workable topic. Here are the three videos for the first part of our class:
1. Winning at Academic Research: Analyzing Academically
2. .Research Minutes: How to Identify Scholarly Journal Articles (Cornell University Libraries)
3. Picking Your Topic IS Research (North Carolina State University)
After viewing the videos, you will be ready to start or continue thinking about your topic. Planning research/writing involves thinking deeply about what you want to write plus choosing appropriate keywords for database searching.
Producing a finished college-level research paper requires:
Sounds complicated, but with the databases we have available, both discovery and documentation of scholarly sources can be fairly easy;. To get started with the process, take a look at our research worksheet:
Before you begin searching, look at this video about Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT):
Building Search Strings, Part 1: Boolean Operators (OSLIS)
Searching QuickSearch for books:
Tragic Hero (Advanced Search)
Search tips for Academic Search Premier and other Ebscohost databases:
Advanced Searching on Ebscohost (Ebsco)
Searching tips for ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection (University of Newcastle, UK)
Proquest Social Sciences Premium Collection
Gale Literature Resource Center
Use the folder or list function in most databases to make a list of works cited.
More on scholarly sources: Click on the EVALUATE SOURCES tab.
More on the research process: Click on the RESEARCH PROCESS tab.
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