ENGL102: Composition II, Stacey Levine

• Put phrases in quotes.
• Use OR to combine synonyms:
• Use AND to combine main ideas of your topic/question.
• Truncate (with *) to get all variations of a search term
• Change important search terms to Subjects for narrower and more relevant results

• Start with the Title and the Abstract (or summary) of the article.
• Then scan the Subject Headings to learn what the article’s focus areas are.
• Notice if the type of article matches what you need; don’t get fooled by a book review or editorial.
• See if you have access to the full-text of your chosen article, possibly in another database

Research = RE-Search ...  In addition to the databases recommended above, the library has more to explore: A-Z Databases.

Scholarly articles go through the peer-review process. The following video describes this process.

• Title
• Author
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Charts, Graphs, Equations
• Article Text
• Conclusion
• References
• Publication

Tips and tricks on how to read scholarly articles (it's not like reading other stuff).

Need more help finding articles? Librarians are ready to help! See the Ask the Library page for ways to contact a librarian.