COMM 108: Find Sources

Unlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. You'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas: the keywords.

Keywords are individual words or short phrases that represent the main ideas in your topic, thesis, or research question. 

Example Question: How does a student’s self-concept develop through public speaking opportunities in college?

Keywords: self-concept; public speaking; college

After you've identified your main ideas and some keywords to start with, think of additional search terms for each concept. These can be synonyms, related ideas, broader terms, or narrower terms. Since a database will match only what you type, using different terms for similar ideas can help you find more articles. 

Example Search Terms: 

• Self-concept: self-identity, self-confidence; self-image; character; personality

• Public speaking: oratory; speechmaking; elocution; communication

• College: higher education; tertiary education; university  

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Research Skills & Tips:

Now that you have identified keywords, you will enter them in your chosen search tool's search box. Try more than one combination to find different sources.

Use the search operators AND & OR to combine your search terms. ​Use quotation marks to search for a specific phrase, with the words in that exact order: "social media" 

Research Skills & Tips:

Filter Results:

To make your results more manageable, use the database filters to limit your search results. For example:

• Full-text access: To ensure that all items from your search results include the entire article or publication, select "full text" from filtering/refining options on the search results page.
• Source types: If you know you only need peer-reviewed journal articles, select peer reviewed. Or, if you want to see only magazine articles, e-books, or another type of source, you can select only what you need. 
• Publication date: If your sources must be from within the last five years, you can set the year of publication to reflect that. 

These options may be found in different locations of a database’s results page. In RaptorSearch, filter options are found on the left.

You can also set these options before you search from the Advanced Search screen in most databases. 

Sort Results:

Most database search results will be sorted by relevance. You can change this to sort by newest first, oldest first, etc. Look for the sort options near the top of the results list. 

Research Skills & Tips:

When & Why to Use Scholarly Books:

• You need to understand a complex topic (these are easier to read than journal articles)
• You need very in-depth analysis of a topic
• You need a broad understanding of one or more topics
• You need a summary of existing research on a topic

Search:

Research Skills & Tips:

The MC Library has access to streaming videos and audio (as well as DVDs and CDs). You can find documentaries, educational videos, and mainstream movies. 

When & Why to Use Videos:

• You need to include an expert's point of view, and a documentary on your topic includes an interview with an expert.
• You are doing a presentation and need to include a visual.

Search:

Find analysis and critiques of films, videos, and other visual media, including key trends in filmmaking.

Use images to visualize your research topic.

Learn more about finding and choosing images by watching this video:

Search:

As statistics are widely used to support arguments and positions, it is helpful to be able to think critically about how statistics are created and used in research. This video can help you learn how to critically evaluate and use statistics.

Search: