Session 4:Research continued

Research and Information Literacy

ENG 216A

Professor Susan Acampora

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf20rD6XXvg

Review: Finding a Topic

Homework Review

• Topic Idea: The N-Word• Academic Focus: The Impact of the N-Word• Question: Why do many African Americas used the N-

Word amongst themselves?• What are the consequences of using a racial slur as part

of everyday language?• Thesis: Media and popular culture associate the use of

the N Word with cool and camaraderie, but it is ultimately destructive to the self esteem and self-image of African-Americans.

Developing a Search Strategy: Selecting Terms

Media and popular culture associate the use of the N Word with cool and camaraderie, but it is ultimately destructive to the self esteem of African-Americans.

N Word Media and popular culture

Destructive Self-Esteem

“er” vs “a” Hip Hop Impact Self-image

Racial slurs MTV Consequences Self Respect

Slang Gangsta Culture Why? Why Not? Self-worth

Remember

• Good places to find additional subject terms for your research:– CREDO - Topic Pages– Gale Academic One File – Term Cluster– Google and Wikipedia – Research databases– Library Catalog

The Library Catalog

Advanced Searching

Today we will continue to explore:

• Academic Search Complete

The Search Strategy

• Connecting your terms with Boolean Operators

• Wildcards and Truncation• Modifiers and Limiters

Boolean Operators

• AND = narrow your topic

• OR = broaden your topic

• NOT = will eliminate the term it preceeds

Example from Ebscohost Help

An example of a good search strategy

“child abuse” or “family violence”AND

alcohol* or “substance abuse”

Another Example using NOT

Subjects vs Keywords

Keywords

• Keywords are terms that are often part of common everyday language.

• Most databases search by keyword by default• keywords will retrieve items contain the

keyword anywhere in the record• Good to use if you are not getting a lot of

results

Subject Terms

• Subject Terms are official terms used to index research

• They are considered a “controlled vocabulary” and are very specific

• Most databases have an online subject guide or index where you can find this controlled vocabulary

• It is best to use Subject Terms to narrow a search that has brought you too many results

Wildcard Symbols ? #

• ?• #

• For example: – Wom?n to find woman or women– Colo#r will look for color or colour

Wildcards and Truncation

• Use the wildcard and truncation symbols to create searches where there are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings

• Never as the first character of a search term

Nesting

• If you want to find a specific subject phrase, not simple each word in the phrase:

– Nest your terms between parentheses:

“teenage pregnancy”

Truncation Symbol *

• Replace the ending of a search term with an * to find all variations of that word.

For example, type comput* to find the words computer or computing.

Limiters and Modifiers

Lab Exercise• See handout of the first page of a successful

search result for your topic• Note the various fields: Subject, keyword,

Author, Title• Go to Academic Search Complete andLocate the article by two different approaches using the fields available.If you succeed you get the whole article!!

Let’s Start Searching

• Go to the Library Home Page