Searching & Evaluating Resources
Rhetoric 1302
WWW vs. Periodical Databases
WWW Contains text,
images, sound, and video
Anyone can publish pages on the Web.
Numerous hits with many duplicates
Unregulated source of information
Periodical Databases Mainly text (HTML &
PDF formats) Access to specific
information High degree of
authority on the information found within
No duplicates
Searching the Web
Government information/Web sites Associations & organizations Commercial sites / Consumer info Current news (limited) Background info
Searching Periodical Databases
Need to research articles, esp. scholarly
Greater concern for authoritative sources
More powerful “advanced” searching
Need newspaper archives/backfiles
Popular Vs. Scholarly Intended for a
general audience. Articles written by
journalists who may or may not have special training
Articles do not have footnotes
Magazines have advertising, photographs, and glossy pages
For Profit Not Peer-reviewed
Intended for an audience knowledgeable in the field
Articles are written by scholars, whose names are listed along with credentials
Articles are footnoted and list sources used
No advertising, few photographs, and usually printed on plain paper
Usually not for profit Peer-reviewed
Choose Your Sources Wisely
No matter how much time and effort that you put into your paper, it will be only as good as the sources that you use
Choose a variety of sources (reference materials, journals, essays, books, statistics, documented research, letters)
Developing a Search Strategy
Select a topic Identify keywords Identify synonyms Group concepts and add
connectors (Boolean) Use truncation and/or wildcard
keys if available
Selecting a Topic and Determining Keywords
After deciding on a topic, write down the topic in the form of a sentence or question.
Does ethnicity and class affect educational attainment in England?
Look at your question and pull out the most important words.
Ethnicity class education England
Identifying Synonyms Take your keywords and find other
words that also describe your topic. Also write down narrower and broader terms to help refine your search.
ETHNICITY RACE RACISM MINORITY DEMOGRAPHY EDUCATION UNIVERSITIES COLLEGE ACADEMIA
STUDENT SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT BIAS PREJUDICE DISCRIMINATION ENGLISH BRITISH AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EQUALITY DIVERSITY
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROFILING
Group Concepts Group concepts together by
parentheses or quotation marks
“race prejudice” “higher educational attainment”
or
(race prejudice) (educational attainment)
Proximity connectors
w or w5 (“with”) – searches for two terms in the order typed
n or n5 (“near”) – searches for two terms in any order
“ “ quotation marks – groups terms together as a phrase
Examples
higher w education bias n3 racial “racial profiling” which is the same
as racial w profiling
Add connectors Connectors (Boolean)
AND-both terms must appear together in the record (narrows search)
OR-either term appears in the record (broadens search)
NOT-placed before term omits all records featuring this term in them (use NOT carefully – it may omit results that you had not intended)
Examples
“racial bias” AND “higher education”
“higher education” OR “university”
(“higher education” OR “university”) AND “racial bias”
Use truncation and/or wildcard keys if available
Both use a special key (*, ?, #, $) depending on the source used
Truncation - When key placed at end of term, all variations of word (from “trunk” or root onward) found.
Wildcard key – Replaces a single character and makes it a “wildcard” for any letter in the alphabet.
Examples universit*
universities university
Wom?n women woman womyn
“racial bias” AND universit*
OR
“higher education” AND
rac*
Evaluating Sources (ABC’s)
Audience Authority Bias Currency Scope
Audience
What age group/education level/political affiliation/etc. is the audience?
Is this for a person with in-depth knowledge or a layperson?
Authority
Does the author’s name appear on the Web page?
What are his/her credentials? Does the author provide contact
information?
Bias
Is the source objective? Could the writer or the
organization’s affiliation put a different spin on the information presented?
What is the purpose of the source?
Currency
When was the work published? When was the work last updated? How old are the sources or items
in the bibliography? How current is the topic? If a Web page, do the links work?
Scope
What does/doesn’t the work cover?
Is it an in-depth study (many pages) or superficial (one page)?
Are sources and statistics cited? If a site, does it offer unique info
not found in any other source?
Selecting a Search Engine
Use Search Engine Watch or Search Engine Showdown to find and compare.
Choose only 2 or 3 search engines and learn them well. Use help screen/search tips to educate
yourself on advanced options. Familiarize yourself with the advanced
search, if available.
Selecting Your Database(s)
Choose by subject http://www.utdallas.edu/library/reference/subjectdata.html
In Alphabetical List, click “?” icon following name for more information
Ask a Reference Librarian – we know what’s best!
Thesaurus
What is it? List of standard subject terms used for
indexing the documents in their files Also known as controlled vocabulary
African American use Black Americans
Racial Bias use Racism
Citing your sources
MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style, and other citation manuals available at the Reference Desk.
Copies may be available in Main Stacks
Need help citing? The Writing Lab can help.
On-Line Sources for citing Citation Style Guides by Auburn University
http://www.lib.auburn.edu/citations.html Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism by Duke
University http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/citing.htm Online! Citation Styles by Bedford/St. Martin’s
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html Documentation Guide – Turabian
http://juno.concordia.ca/faqs/turabian.html Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgement by
Dartmouth College http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/index.html
Other Library Services Telephone
Reference 972-883-2955
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Friday 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
E-mail Reference “Ask A Librarian”
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/reference/erefform.htm
By appointment with a reference librarian
Contact Loreen Phillips [email protected]
u Stop by the reference desk
and ask
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