In Week One, Discussion Two, you used the Credo Reference database to choose a research topic and come up with three questions that will become your subtopics.
For Week Two, Discussion One, you will use the UAGC Library to find one scholarly and one popular source about the research topic you chose last week. Below is a general search strategy to assist you in finding a scholarly and popular source within the library. For more information on the different source types please see the Scholarly & Popular Resources tutorial.
Scholarly Source
1. Begin your search by opening the Advanced Search link within the Library OneSearch box that you will see once you are within the UAGC Library. We recommend that you begin your research with this database because it searches most of the library's collection at once. Additionally, the advanced search option will provide you with three separate search boxes to enter your search terms.
2. Once on the Advanced Search page, enter the concepts you want to search into the search boxes, using one concept per box. For example, if my research topic were Nutrition and one of my subtopics was Dieting, I could try the following search.
In the first box, type nutrition. In the second box, type dieting. Then select Search.
3. Once in your results, you can then select the Limit to Scholarly/Peer Reviewed limiter under "Limit To" on the left side of the page to only display scholarly, peer-reviewed sources.
Popular Source
1. From the results page, Uncheck the Limit to Scholarly/Peer Reviewed limiter under "Limit To" on the left side of the page.
2. From here, locate the Limit by Source Types limiter also on the left side of the page. Select the "Show More" link and proceed to limit your search results to popular or non-scholarly sources such as news, magazines, and trade journals.
Additional Tips
Go through the first page or two of search results to see if any of the articles will meet your research need. Pay attention to the titles and subjects related to your articles. Your search terms will be bolded within those sections. The Subjects section of the articles in your search results list is a great place to look for similar terms for your topic.
If none of the articles will work for this assignment, revise your search by using different or additional search terms. Find additional ideas for search terms in the subject limiters box on the left side of the page by clicking the Show More button.
Here are a few more tips to help you with your research:
- You should use quotations when searching for multiple words in one phrase, like "weight loss". This tells the database you want only results with words appearing next to each other in that specific order.
- You can search for different words that refer to similar things by using OR, and this will give you more results. For example, you could search for nutrition or diet in one search box, and the database will find any articles with either of those phrases.
- Another time-saving tip is to click your mouse on the piece of paper with the magnifying glass on it (to the right of the articles titles). That will bring up the abstract, which is a summary of the article. Reading this will help you decide if the article is relevant to your topic and worthwhile to click on and read in its entirety.
If you still have questions you can chat in real-time with a librarian here.