Cabrillo College Library






 

 

name_____________________________

First, go to the Web page for this class:

  1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage http://libwww.cabrillo.edu
  2. Make the Library homepage page a Favorite -- click on Favorites [top of screen], then on Add, then on OK. Now you can easily get back to it by going to your Favorites
  3. Click on Internet Links (third icon down, on left)
  4. Click on English
  5. Scroll down, and under Course-Related Materials, select ENGL 1A, College Composition, C. Chaffin.
  6. Make this page a Favorite -- click on Favorites [top of screen], then on Add, then on OK. Now you can easily get back to it by going to your Favorites

Research Strategies

Background information    Finding good background information on your topic is like finding a helpful map -- you can quickly review the main issues, and you can see where you want to go with your own "take" on the topic.

For many topics, CQ Researcher will be a good source of background information. Here's how you get to it:

  1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
  2. Click on Fulltext Articles (second icon down, on left)
  3. Click on CQ Researcher
  4. Type in your topic keywords in the Search box

Once you retrieve an article, note that you can email them to yourself.

Did you find something here helpful to your research? Make notes about something you learned.

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Other good resources are

  • Issue Organizations from Project Vote Smart -- find organizations that deal with your issue
  • National Issues Forum Click on Reports and Discussion Guides to see what's available
  • Public Agenda Online Issues covered include higher education, gay rights, the environment, immigration, poverty. Click on ISSUE Guides.
  • RAND Corporation Examples of areas covered: child policy, education, environment

Make notes here about what you found.

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Britannica Online Encyclopedia

  1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
  2. Click on Fulltext Articles
  3. Click on Britannica Online Encyclopedia (in righthand column)

This is the full Encyclopaedia Britannica online!!

Search for information on your topic. Did you find something here helpful to your research?

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Keywords and Major Concepts   As you get into your topic, it's important to note down key words and terms you run across that you can use in subsequent searching. Suppose my topic were illiteracy in the United States. Here are some terms representing that topic that I might have collected so far:

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3
illiteracy learning to read TV watching
  phonics vs. "whole language" parental models


Your turn!

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3
     
     

As you dig into material on your topic, come up with some questions!  Some questions come naturally -- Who? What? Why? There are different types of questions.

Let's continue with the topic illiteracy in the United States. After reviewing background information, here are some questions I might pursue:
  • Fact questions -- What percentage of adults in the U.S. are illiterate?
  • Hypothetical questions -- Would programs that encouraged more reading and less TV watching improve literacy rates? (Following up on studies that show that high rates of television watching among children is correlated with illiteracy in later years)
  • Probing questions -- What kinds of programs in the workplace would encourage workers to improve their own levels of literacy? (since it is estimated that $25-35 billion in productivity is lost per year due to illiteracy)
  • Contrasting questions -- How do illiteracy rates in the U.S. compare to those of other industrialized countries?

Make notes here about questions that apply to your topic:

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Other Major Information Sources

  • Books -- use the Library Catalog from the Cabrillo College Library homepage
  • Periodical articles -- Use EBSCOhost's Academic Search Elite. From the Cabrillo College Library homepage, click on Fulltext Articles, then on Magazine and Journal Articles (EBSCOhost). Remember:
    • Advanced Search mode is probably best
    • You can limit to full text
    • You can limit to scholarly journal articles.
    • You can even search within the text of articles.
      Ask me if you don't know how to do those things!
  • Newspaper articles -- Use National Newspaper Articles. From the Cabrillo College Library homepage, click on Fulltext Articles, then on National Newspaper Articles. As with Academic Search Elite,
    • Advanced Search mode is probably best
    • You can limit to full text
    • You can even search within the text of articles.
      Ask me if you don't know how to do those things!

Using Search Engines Evaluation is key! Internet search engines, unfortunately, don't all work in the same way. However, the following search parameters usually do apply:

  • Use quotation marks (" ") to keep words in phrases together
  • If you want the search engine to recognize a letter as a capital, capitalize it. Otherwise, use lower case
  • Most search engines have an Advanced search mode which can help you do better, more precise searches

Getting to a list of Internet Search Engines

  • Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
  • Click on Search the Internet (fourth icon down, on left)
  • Click on Search Engines
  • Google is the biggest and "the best"
Criteria to apply when evaluating Web resources:
Accuracy Authority Objectivity Currency Coverage


Keeping in mind the five criteria, above, search for Web sites about your topic. Make notes below about three quality Web sites you find:

1. URL____________________________

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2. URL____________________________

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3. URL____________________________

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Transferring an Image from the Web to a Word document The Web is rich in images.
If you copy and include an image in something you write, the origin of the image should be acknowledged. At the minimum, give the title of the Web site and the complete URL (you can just copy and paste the URL into your Word document -- highlight the URL, then Ctrl C to copy; Ctrl V to paste).

Go to one of these image resources:

  1. On the Web, right click on the image; scroll down to Save Image As (or Save Picture As)
  2. Save the image to the Desktop. You can rename it if you want. Save it with a .jpg (for photographs and images with lots of detail), or a .gif (other images) extension
  3. Go to your Word document
  4. Click on Insert on the toolbar at the top of the screen
  5. Go to Picture. Select From File
  6. Go to the Desktop and click on your image to insert it.
  7. Under (or near) the image, type the word Source and include the title of the Web site and its complete URL.
Please share your thoughts about this session. Thanks!

How to Get to This Page on the Internet

  1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage <http://libwww.cabrillo.edu>
  2. Click on Internet Links
  3. Click on English
  4. Scroll down, and under Course-Related Materials, select ENGL 1A, College Composition, C. Chaffin

C. Chaffin and T. N. Smalley last rev. 4/06