SMALL GROUP COMMUNICATION Research & Resources Presented by Megan Lowe, Coordinator of Public Services

Where to Begin? At the Beginning! Let’s say you need some research resources for a project or speech or paper. You have a topic, and you know you need resources, but you aren’t sure how to get started. Your impulse would be to start with the Internet, but instead, first consider what you need to find: quality, credible articles about or related to smoking policies on college campuses

The Topic This presentation will walk you, step-by-step, through the research process. It will use the following thesis as its object: Smoking policies on American college campuses need to change.

Making the Topic WORK for YOU  The topic – also called a thesis or research statement – is the backbone of your paper  From the thesis statement, you can generate keywords  Keywords are the most important parts of your thesis statement and are what you use to conduct searches when looking for resources (but we’ll talk more about keywords and keyword searching later)  One more thing – keywords composed of more than one word are keyword phrases and need to be put in quotation marks: “smoking policies”

More on Keywords Don’t limit yourself to the words in the thesis: include synonyms, phrases, and related words, too  Policies = rules  “Public health”  “No Smoking policy”  Smoking / “chewing tobacco” / cigars

Example Keyword Breakdown Smoking policies on American college campuses smokingtobaccopolicy “smoking policy” American “United States” college university campuses

More on Keywords So a keyword search for our topic could look like any of these search strings (which are combos of keywords with operators, AND, OR, and NOT):  college AND smoking AND policy  university AND tobacco AND policies  smoking AND America AND campus AND policy Order and capitalization are not important, but spelling and number are, so be careful.

NEXT STEP: *NOT* Searching YET  That’s right – we’re not searching yet. Hold your horses! There’s something you need to know.  Know how most professors (and librarians) cringe when you use Google and other search engines and rely too heavily on websites for your research?  The reason for this is that the Internet is NOT moderated or quality-controlled, and there’s a lot of GARBAGE and RUMOR and outright MISINFORMATION floating around.

*NOT* Searching YET  You don’t want to write a paper or conduct research with GARBAGE, RUMOR, or MISINFORMATION, do you? OF COURSE NOT!  You wouldn’t feed a baby GARBAGE, would you? OF COURSE NOT!  You would feed a baby healthy, safe, clean food, right? RIGHT!  Think of your paper like a baby – you want to fill it with healthy, safe, clean things!

*NOT* Searching YET  “healthy, safe, clean things” = scholarly, peer- reviewed, research-oriented resources  There ARE scholarly, peer-reviewed, research- oriented resources on the Internet – but it usually takes extra effort and time to find them  However, starting with the Library’s resources means that you’re heading straight for those resources right out of the gate – the Library is CHOCK-FULL of scholarly, peer-reviewed resources!

So…what are scholarly resources?  Written by experts  Focus on a particular field, topic, or discipline  Intended for others in that field or career  “Proper” language, technical vocabulary  No ads  RESEARCH ORIENTED * Journals are scholarly

POPULAR resources are the opposite  Written by journalists  Usually cover broad topics, fields, issues, or disciplines  Usually appeal to a wide audience  Everyday language, slang, even profanity  LOTS of ads  NOT RESEARCH ORIENTED * Magazines and newspapers are popular

A few more tips…  DO create a list of keywords  DO underline/highlight/bookmark  DO take notes/sticky notes  DO get organized  DON’T multitask  DON’T procrastinate  DON’T plagiarize

LET’S DO THIS We know we need scholarly resources on our topic Smoking policies on American college campuses need to change. We know keywords and search strings we can use. We have the skills we need to get started. So we start with the Library’s website

After the Searching’s Done…  You have the resources you need, either digitally or physically, if you’ve printed them out  This is when underlining/highlighting comes into play, as well as notes and sticky notes  Documentation is also important, in order to avoid plagiarism – several of our databases (like Ebscohost) will generate citations for you

Need a Hand?  If you need help with the research process – at ANY point in the research process – you can ask the librarians for assistance – that’s what we do!  We also check documentation (quotations and citations) for accuracy  If you’d like someone to check your writing (grammar, spelling, and syntax), you can go to the Write Place on the 1 st floor of the Library

RECAP  When doing research, make sure you have a manageable (narrow) topic  Create a list of keywords and search strings  Bear in mind that you need scholarly resources, which can be found in the Library  Search the Library’s resources using the keywords and search strings, bearing in mind the tips we discussed  Make sure you document your resources!

RECAP  Select databases based on your research needs – for a topic like the “no smoking” policies on college campuses, education databases work well, but so would health sciences (think outside the box)!  Use parameters like “scholarly/peer-reviewed” and “full text” – and even publication date – to make the results lists more manageable  Some databases will create citations FOR you – take advantage of that for accurate citations!

RECAP  The librarians can help you with research, from start to finish!  The librarians can also help you with citations and documentation  The Write Place can help you with writing – they can check spelling, grammar, and syntax  All of these services can be found on the 1 st floor of the Library (that’s also where you check out books, study rooms, and make copies)

Library Databases for COMM  EDS – comprehensive search of electronic resources  Ebscohost  Academic Search Complete  Communication and Mass Media Complete  Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection  JSTOR

Question & Answer Time!

Remember, if you need research help, all you have to do is ask the librarians. You can…  Visit the Reference Desk, Library 1 st floor  us at  Call us at (318) Thanks for your cooperation!