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EN1300 Composition II Library Guide Spring C 2023

Resources for choosing a topic, finding articles, annotated bibliographies, and writing your paper

Finding Scholarly/Peer-reviewed Articles

You are asked to find "Scholarly Articles," "Peer-Reviewed Articles," or
"Academic Articles." These types of articles are:

  • Written and reviewed by scholars and provide new research, analysis, or
    information about a specific topic.

    • "Review" means the article is approved by other experts before
      publication

  • Usually focused on a narrow subject or a single case study

  • Intended for an academic audience

OneSearch

OneSearch is an all-encompassing search engine for locating articles in journals and ebooks.

  • Check the box "Full Text" to limit your results to full text articles. Check the box "Peer reviewed" to limit your results to Peer reviewed or Scholarly articles. You also may use the limiter tabs at the top of your results page.
  • If you try to download an article and see "Page unavailable," use a different browser. Microsoft Edge or Firefox are recommended.
Advanced Search

Smart Searching Part 2 with One Search -Keyword v. Subject This interactive tutorial will show you how to limit results by date and refine your search by subject.

Other Databases 

These databases contain journal articles, legal, business, and news resources, and other materials not found through OneSearch.​​​​​​​

Search Tips

SearchUnlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. So you'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas - the KEYWORDS.

Example Topic: What was the effect of social media on candidate preference in the 2016 US presidential election?

The specifics of your topic will matter when selecting sources, but for searching you only need the most essential components.

Keywords: social media, candidate preference, 2016 US presidential election

Tutorial - Finding Keywords

If you find you need to practice choosing keywords, try the Finding Keywords tutorial.

Most words have synonyms that mean the same, or very similar, things. For each keyword in your topic, try to come up with at least one synonym. Not all keywords will have synonyms, but many do!
Example: 
 
Keyword: social media     Synonym: Facebook
Keep an Eye Out
Sometimes scholars use terms that you might not be familiar with, or which might mean something very specific within the discipline. While searching, look for unfamiliar terms or words that show up a lot. Try searching for those and see if you find more relevant sources.
Limit searchOne Search and the individual library databases have built-in search tools. Try some of these:
  • Subject: Think of subjects as official hashtags. Use them to find sources about that subject.
  • Date Range: Limit your search to sources published between specific years.
  • Peer Reviewed: Limit your search to scholarly journal articles.
  • Full Text: Make sure all the results are available to read in full.
In OneSearch, use the All Filters tab at the top of your results page.  For  "Advanced Search," options appear to the right and below the search boxes.
For the Ebsco databases, filters will be to the left of your search results. --------------------------------------->
For the Nexis Uni database, filters also will be to the left of your search results.

 
 
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