EXP101(Litton)
From Bentley Library Research Help
EXP101: Expository Writing I - Pr. Glenn Litton
This Library Research Guide is designed to give students in Pr. Litton's EXP101 course a starting point for their research assignment.
Some of the resources listed below are subscription databases and are only available to current students, faculty, and staff of Bentley College. (Rev. 2.12.2008 KM)
Different types of resources and access levels are indicated by:
- Print Resources
are located in the Library. Some of these Print Resources are located in the Reference Collection or behind the Reference Desk.
- Electronic Resources
are subscription databases. These resources are available to members of the Bentley Community on-campus. Off-campus access is available by using your Bentley e-mail address and network password.
- Websites
are internet resources that are free.
If you need more information than is provided below, please ask a Reference Librarian.
Contents |
[edit] 1 Your thesis statement and exploding/exploring your topic
Step 1: Formulating a Thesis
Before you can look for information, you must have a topic to investigate. Define your topic by writing it in the form of a question and then note the main concepts.
- Here is an example of a working thesis:
- Do grades received correlate with what the student learned in the class?
- This is still a very broad topic.
Step2: List Keywords
- Break down your thesis into keywords and be sure to add to your list other terms that describe your topic.
Grading systems Learning Impact Colleges and Universities Evaluation "Transfer of Learning" Correlat* Higher Education Assessment Reasoning Measure* College Students
- Use a subject specific encyclopedia such as Encyclopedia of Education REF LB15 .E47 2003 to explore a topic and its keyword components.
- As you retrieve information, either through books or through articles, keep a list of keywords and search queries that you found effective for getting the specific information you needed. Use these terms to expand or narrow your focus and try the same terms and searches in more than one database.
Revise your search strategy to narrow or broaden the scope of your topic as needed. Continue to update your thesis statement as your research progresses.
[edit] 2 Background Resources -- Putting information in context.
Locating background information in general and subject specific encyclopedias and dictionaries and other reference resources will help you put information in context.
Consulting reference materials will help you:
- Get an overview of the subject.
- Note key concepts/developments.
- Identify significant authors.
- See a chronology/timeline.
- Discern connections/interrelationships with other developments.
- Develop a list of search terms.
- Use the bibliographies to locate other information on your topic.
[edit] 2.1 Reference Books & Reference Sources
Below are some suggested resources, but it is worth checking with the Research Librarian to see if there are any suggested resources for your specific topic.
- Britannica Online
- Provides access to the electronic version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus.
- Use Subject Browse on left to browse for your topic or search for your topic by keyword.
- --For example, try learning.
- International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences REF H41 .I58 2001
- 26 volume work providing in debth coverage of topics in the areas of sociology and psychology.
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Provides the authoritative spellings, etymology and definitions for more than 500,000 words. The OED also traces word usage from their first recorded occurrence to the modern period with more than 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of language sources. Useful for brainstorming keywords.
- Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Provides online access to access to more than 2,000 entries from respected scholars and philosophers.
- Search by keyword for learning.
[edit] 3 Scholarly Books
[edit] 3.1 Bentley Library Catalog
For a quick overview see the Library Catalog Tutorial Page
To access start at the Library`s main page and select Search for Books/DVD`s.
When searching for books start off with a broad approach towards your search query and actually look at the books to determine relevance. Many books may contain a chapter completely relevant to your topic, but you may miss it by being too specific with your keyword search.
For example: If my working thesis was...How important is grading to the learning process in higher education?
- First, I would start my search of the catalog with just the keyword grades or grading to see what the latest books are in our collection. I find that the catalog returns 123 titles, but none of them really seem to be on my topic.
- Second, I try changing the terms I use and search the phrase "good grades" and the catalog returns 2 titles.
- Next, I look at the detailed record for one of these books.
- I then use the information in the record to find other keywords I can use to search with, including the names of the authors who wrote the book article which is on my topic. My search queries could then look like these...
- "Cognitive skills" AND grades.
- (Girotto OR Peterson) AND grades
- "student assessment" AND "Higher Education"
- "College Students" AND Learning
- "Education, Higher" AND (assessment OR learning) AND student*--Best search.
- I refine my search query using the boolean operators AND and OR to limit or expand my retrieval to resources that are more relevant to my topic.
- Once I find a relevant title, I note down the call number. The call number is an alphanumeric number like LC66 .E23 1999 in the above screen capture and you would use the call number to find the book on the shelf in the library. The call number is based on the subject of the book.
Click here for more searching tips
[edit] 3.2 What is Worldcat?
- When you find a book on your topic, try using your successful search query in Worldcat.org to find other sources you may want to get through Interlibrary Loan.
[edit] 3.3 What is Interlibrary Loan?
- Interlibrary Loan or ILL is a free service that allows you to borrow books or get a photocopy of an article from another Library. For more information, to sign up for your account or to place a request click here.
[edit] 4 Scholarly Articles
What is a Scholarly Journal?
- A journal that contains articles that have been reviewed by a panel of subject specialists or experts prior to their publication. Another term for a scholarly publication is peer reviewed. A scholarly article contains a bibliography or work cited section of references.
- Click here for more tips on identifying scholarly journals.
How to find a Scholarly Journal Article.
- If you know which database you want to search, you may located it in the Databases A-Z Area of the library`s page.
- If you don`t know where to get started, the Library has also grouped their database offerings by subject in the Find Articles by Subject Area.
- The databases listed under the subject areas Art Media & Literature, Politics & Government & Psychology & Sociology will be useful for the majority of your topics. You can find articles from Scholarly Journals in all of these Database Subject Areas.
For the purpose of illustration, highlighted databases are suggested places to get started for a sociology topic.
- If the full text of the article is not provided, see the next section on tracking down the full text if you have a citation.
[edit] 5 How to track down the full text if you have a citation
Let us say for the purpose of illustration that the article you want is from the Chronicle of Higher Education. --The Chronicle of Higher Education is not a scholarly journal. It is a trade newspaper. To get the full text you would start at the Bentley Library and click on Find a Journal/Magazine.
You will retrieve a listing of databases that provide access to the full text of the Chronicle of Higher Education and what dates they provide coverage for. For example, the above search will retrieve the following information with linking to the specific databases and in most cases with links to the specific journal or newspaper title within each database.
If the article is unavailable at the Bentley Library, you can still get a copy by requesting it through Interlibrary Loan.
[edit] 6 Web Resources and how to evaluate them.
Here are some General Guidelines to keep in mind when evaluating information found on a website.
Some recommended search engines:
[edit] 7 Citing your sources
Your professor wants you to use the MLA Format for your footnotes and bibliography.
- A Writer's Reference, 6th edition provides examples for the APA, MLA, and CMS (Chicago Manual of Style) styles.
- A print copy is available at the Reference Desk (REF DESK PE1408 .H2778 2007)
- Companion Web Site Research and Documentation Online
- A print copy is available at the Reference Desk
- The Library also subscribes to service called RefWorks. Many of our databases allow you to download/upload your bibliographic data directly into your RefWorks account. RefWorks supports the MLA Format. You can "Sign up for an Individual Account" with your Bentley email address from any Bentley computer. Please understand that you will still need to understand the elements of the citation style. No software is 100 percent accurate.
[edit] 8 Terminology Defined
- Scholarly Publication
- A journal that contains articles that have been reviewed by a panel of subject specialists or experts prior to their publication. Another term for a scholarly publication is peer reviewed. A scholarly article contains a bibliography or work cited section of references.
- Non-Scholarly Publication
- A publication in which the articles are not reviewed by subject specialists prior to its publication.
- Primary Source
- Sources that contain raw, original, non-interpreted and unevaluated information.
- Secondary Source
- Sources that digest, analyze, evaluate and interpret the information contained in primary sources.
- Abstract
- A brief summary outlining the main content of a journal article or other document.
- Citation
- Information identifying a publication. Details usually include author, title, date of publication, journal title, volume and page numbers. Sometimes also called "References".
