Research Tips & Tricks

POLI 346 American Foreign Policy

Megan Fitzgibbons, Liaison Librarian

Let’s talk about cookies

Let’s talk about cookies

What’s in your cookies?

What’s in your term paper???

Your task: in groups of 3

1. Find one information source that

you would use for a paper on

George Bush’s “axis of evil” speech.

2. Share what you found with the

class

Too much information?

Information flow

Academic analysis

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How do the messages of these sources differ?

Which is appropriate for your assignment?

Choosing your ingredients

Information Type Description

Books (scholarly monographs) Broad, thorough, academic treatment of a subject.

Academic book chapters Examination of a specific topic. Similar to journal articles.

Scholarly journal articles Detailed scholarly examination of a topic. Peer-reviewed.

News & trade magazines Popular or non-scholarly treatment of a subject.

Government documents Official documents published by government agencies.

The Course Guide

This guide lists links to resources that will help you find information for

your assignment.

Encyclopediasare an excellent

place to start!

Written by named experts

Gives a summary of

the topicLists further

reading

Different from searching the web…

Databases are like directories for finding academic articles

Other documents

Articles

Journals

Databases

Researchers

Databases: What’s the difference???

Each database provider chooses different journals, books, etc. to include in their index.

Some are specialized directories (e.g., only legal journals), while some are broad (e.g., social sciences in general, with a few journals from each discipline).

You will find that some of the databases overlap, but they all have some unique content.

My topic

Ronald Reagan and foreign policy

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Any of these databases is a good place to start. We’ll look at America: History & Life today.

20

Try synonyms and alternative terms when

you search.

21Limit to scholarly articles

22

No full text here? Try to “FindIt” at McGill.

23

Click to open the full text of the article

Google Scholar: also a good place to find

articles and working papers. Set up your preferences to

see links to McGill.

Search tip 1

“Exact phrase”

Examples:

“New York”

“Ronald Reagan”

“climate change”

Search tip 2

AND

“foreign policy” AND bush

OR

“foreign policy” OR “foreign affairs”

Americ*

America

American

Americans

Search tip 3: fill in the blank

Search tip 4

Subject words

Look for the standardized subject words or “descriptors”

in the database

Research process

1. Select a research tool

2. Find out what has been published

3. Find the text of the item

Search the library catalogue for the journal title

Use CREPUQ or Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

If full text is not available online

If not available…

Virtual Private Network

Off campus?

32

Instructions for setting up the VPN

are here.

Bibliography

The Audacity of Hope.

Obama, Barack.

New York : Crown Publishers, 2006.

How to find…

Look for the title of the book in the catalogue

35

American Review of Canadian Studies

34, no. 4 (2009):

“Bush/Harper? Canadian Malloy, Jonathan.

352-363.

How to find…

American Evangelical Politics Compared.”

All articles are NOT listed

directly in the library catalogue!

American Review of Canadian Studies

34, no. 4 (2009):

“Bush/Harper? Canadian Malloy, Jonathan.

352-363.

How to find…

American Evangelical Politics Compared.”

Look for the title of the journal in the catalogue

39

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Click to find the article on the journal’s website

Academic integrity at McGill

“McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures.”

Plagiarism = stealing

Citation woes?

Why cite?

Credit Identify

Replicate Defend

Tips for paraphrasing

1. Start early!

2. Take notes as you read. Put the original aside

when you write

3. Check the original again for accuracy

4. Quote unique phrases and terminology

5. Record your sources

Original passage

Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

Paraphrase example

In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

Plagiarism example

Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

Credit where it’s due

Copyright ©1995-2009 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Where do you find articles?

Research process

1. Select a research tool

2. Find out what has been published

3. Find the text of the item

Evaluate!

VPN help

Library materials

Course guide

Ask Us!

What are your questions?

Megan FitzgibbonsLiaison Librarianmegan.fitzgibbons@mcgill.ca514-398-4696

Image Credits

Slide 1: Juggling by timailius http://www.flickr.com/photos/9914541@N05/2832728718/. License: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic

Slide 2: Cookies by Mrs Magic http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsmagic/1117398599/ License: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Slide 7: Information timeline. Created by Anna Stewart, Librarian, St. Edward’s University. Retrieved September 21, 2009 from: http://libr.stedwards.edu/about_library/depts/instruction/instr_class_docs.htm. Used with permission.

Slide 18: Life ring by mag3737 http://www.flickr.com/photos/50318388@N00/2071089166 / License: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Slide 18: Ronald Reagan by limeydog. License: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/71378407@N00/2631203990 /

Slide 21: Yellow-Pages by metrostation. License: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/28803949@N00/30441950/

Slide 50: Thief by desiretofire : music is the shape of silence http://www.flickr.com/photos/desiretofire/151851052 Slide 52: Citation flowchart: Gaunt, Jessica, Nigel Morgan, Rowland Somers, Rosemary Soper, and Erica Swain.

Handbook for Information Literacy Teaching. Cardiff, Wales: Cardiff University, 2007. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/educationandtraining/infolit/hilt/index.html (accessed May 14, 2008).

Slide 54: Standing upon the shoulders of giants by mushonhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/74121966@N00/282287572/. Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic