1. ENGL 1221
Writing Seminar
McManus
Professor Traci Welch Moritz
Public Services Librarian
Heterick Memorial Library
2. What to expect
• Day 1 • Day 2
• Construct research • Review
strategy • Narrow focus
• Conduct background • Select appropriate
research databases
• Evaluate materials • Create annotated
• Manage information bibliography
found
4. Libraries at ONU
•Taggert Law Library • Heterick
Memorial Library
•Library for Law • Undergraduate
school, accessible to Library,
all accessible to all
6. The assignment
• Persuasive argument -- Persuade
the audience to choose your point of
view.
–Define main point
–Identify reader
–Identify strongest points for persuasion
–Identify strongest opposing view
7. Possible Topics
• Issues of social justice
• Human rights
• Equality in the US
• Occupy Wall Street
• US student loan controversy
• Rising division in US wealth and poverty levels
• Globalizing job opportunities in the US
• Public protests in the Arab Spring to bring about
change
• Public protests in Syria and the conflict created
• Detroit’s revitalization
8. Background Research
• State your topic as a question
• Identify main concepts or keywords
• Test the topic -- Look for keywords and synonyms and
related terms for the information sought
– Subject headings in catalogs
– Built-in thesauri in many databases
– Reference sources
– Textbooks, lecture notes, readings
– Internet
– Librarians, Instructors
10. •Highly structured information
environment
Way individual records are arranged
Subject headings
Catalog software optimized for above
Deal with material in many formats
•Implies heavy human involvement
•Preparation relatively labor-intensive
Emphasis on precision
•Implies a learning curve to use successfully
12. POLAR
•Looks in several locations (usually
subject, article title, abstracts or
contents)
•Does not require an exact match
•Generates comparatively large number
of hits (not precise)
•Good if you are not familiar with
terminology
14. • Materials owned by all Ohio colleges, universities,
several public libraries
• Ca. 10 million items
• Link from POLAR permits you to submit requests.
Available from Heterick home page
• Most requests arrive in 2-3 working days
• No charge
• Limited to 100 items at a time
• MAY RENEW UP TO 4 TIMES
17. Web Research
Google and Wikipedia aren’t evil, just use them
for the correct purpose at the correct point in
your research strategy.
18. Web Research
Why Evaluate Web Sources?
• Anyone with a little time, some knowledge and
small amount of money can publish on the
Internet.
• No person, persons or organization reviews the
content of the Internet.
• Pages are retrieved by search engines based on the
page's content, not the relevancy or quality of the
page.
19. Web Research
Google Scholar
ONU buys
Full-text Google asks
database to link to
content
OhioLINK
Permits
Google to Run Google
link to full-text Scholar
Search
ONU user sees
licensed full-text
articles
Note: See “Google Scholar” tab at Research Guide to set off-campus
access
20. Web Research
• Currency • Timeliness of the
information.
• Relevance/Coverage • Depth and importance of
the information.
• Authority • Source of the information.
• Accuracy • Reliability of the
information
• Possible bias present in the
• Purpose/Objectivity information.
21. Web Research
Databases “Pay to Play” Internet (Search Engines)
• Usually created by a single • Material from numerous sources,
publisher individual. Government, etc.
• Content pre-arranged for easy use • Search engines must work with material
• Quality/ content control thru prepared without regard for specific
editorial staff software
• Content usually available only to • Quality of material varies
subscribers • Generally do not access for-profit
• Content source usually identified information
and dated • Content often anonymous and undated
25. Databases
Often tools for locating journal and
newspaper articles
Most are subject-specific – some multi-
disciplinary
Many give access to full text of articles
Heterick has 250+
26. General Databases to begin
Academic Search Complete
Lexis-Nexis
Opposing Viewpoints
Search by Subject/Discipline
