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Library Resources for English 155
Analyzing Text and Arguing for a Position -- Professor OK
California State University, Northridge
Oviatt Library (http://library.csun.edu)
Librarian
Eric P. Garcia (http://library.csun.edu/egarcia)
Searching Tips and Tricks
When searching databases, the goal is to find a small number (e.g. 10-30) of articles relevant to your topic. Here are some tips for improving your search results:
- Most databases allow you to choose a date range, so you can limit the search to recently-published articles only.
- Most allow you to choose English articles only, which can further reduce your results.
- Many also allow you to limit your results to peer-reviewed journals, which contain high-quality scholarly articles.
- In keyword searching, a truncation symbol (usually *) expands your search by including various forms of a root word, e.g. immigrant*
- retrieves:
- Immigration
- Immigrate
- Immigrated
- Immigrating
- Immigrates
- Immigratory
- Immigrational
- retrieves:
- Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) serve to either narrow or expand your search: OR expands it by including synonyms or related terms (e.g. Mexican American* OR Chican*); AND narrows it by finding the subset of articles that contain both search terms you want (Immigration AND California); NOT narrows your search by eliminating articles that contain a specific term you do not want (Illegal* NOT Alien*). An easy way to remember the difference is the rhyme OR gives you MORE, while the other two operators give you less (although they may be better results).
Books
Library Catalog - for books, videos, archival materials that will help you identify push and pull factors of your family's migration. Books and archival material may also provide information about immigration laws and the number of immigrants during specific time periods. Use the KEYWORD search if you aren't sure of the official subject headings for your topic.
Examples of subject headings that may work for topics in this class:
- Stereotypes (Social psycology)
- Southeast Asian Americans -- Race identity.
- Southeast Asian Americans -- Ethnic identity.
- United States -- Race relations.
- United States -- Ethnic relations.
- United States -- Ethnic relations -- Study and teaching.
- Hispanic Americans -- Employment.
- African Americans -- Social conditions -- 1975-
- Middle class -- United States
- Social mobility -- United States.
- United States -- Race relations.
- Untied States -- Economic conditions -- 1945-
- California -- Race relations.
- Minorities -- California -- Economic condidtions -- Statistics.
Statistics
Economic indicators / prepared for the Joint Committee on the Economic Report by the Council of Economic Advisers. (http://suncat.csun.edu/record=b1515014) Washington: U.S. G.P.O.
A portrait of race and ethnicity in California : an assessment of social and economic well-being / Belinda I. Reyes, editor ; [Jennifer Cheng ... et al.], contributors. (http://suncat.csun.edu/record=b1813334) San Francisco : Public Policy Institute of California, c2001.
Journal Articles
The Oviatt Library has over 100 databases. To look for articales in journals, newspapers, or magazines, you will need to start with a research database. The following databases provide abstracts and full-text articals from thousands of journals and other sources. Additional databases are available from the Databases A-Z link from the Library web page.
Academic Search Elite from EBSCOHost - for peer-reviewed journal articles be sure to mark the box for "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals."
Chicano Database - items on Mexican-American topics and about Chicanos, 1960-.
JStor - for peer-reviewed journal articles.
CountryWatch - for historical, demographic, and economic information on 191 countries.
Ethnic Newswatch from Proquest - for articles from alternative news sources.
HAPI (Hispanic American Periodicals Index)- from 1970-Present, social science and humanities journal published throughout the world.
InfoTrac OneFile from InfoTrac - for peer-reviewed articles be sure to mark the box for "peer-reviewed publications."
Internet sites
Be cautious when using information you find on web sites that you located by searching Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Vivisimo, etc. Anyone can make a web page and the information may not be reliable or accurate.
Google Advanced Search - lets you limit your search to just .edu or .gov sources, which may be more reliable the .com sources for academic work.
Vivísimo - clusters your search results in folders.
United States Library of Congress: Immigration - a special feature of the Library of Congress on immigration. Contains information on specific groups affected by emigration and immigration in the United States including: Native American, African, German, Irish, Scandanavian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Puerto Rican/Cuban, and Polish/Russian.
Plagiarism and MLA/APA citation style
Remember to cite not only direct quotes, but also other people's ideas. If you paraphrase something, changing a few words to make it sound less like a direct quote, you still have to cite it. If you are uncertain, it is better to cite a source than to be accused of plagiarism for not citing something you should have.
MLA (Modern Language Association)
- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (http://suncat.csun.edu/record=b1867635) by Joseph Gibaldi
LB2369 .G53 2003 - The world's easiest guide to using the MLA: a user-friendly manual for formatting research papers according to the Modern Language Association style guide (http://suncat.csun.edu/record=b1768874) by Carol J. Amato
LB2369 .A488 1999 - Citing References In Your Paper (MLA Documentation) (http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocMLA.html) by The Writing Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- MLA Formatting and Style Guide (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/) by The OWL at Predue and Perdue University
Contact Information
Created and maintained by Eric P. Garcia
Questions or comments: eric.garcia@csun.edu
18111 Nordhoff St. Northridge CA 91330 (818) 677-2285 |
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