English 100 - Professor Torres-Guimaraes - Fall 2021: Find Articles

Journals?  
Magazines?
Newspapers?

When doing research, it is useful to know what these different publications are and what kind of information they contain.

• Journal articles are more scholarly or professional while magazine articles tend to be shorter and more general.

• Magazine articles appeal to the general reader and usually have relatively short articles are written in non-technical language are easy to understand

• Newspaper articles, while not usually scholarly or professional, can give you the most current news and some additional facts on your topic.

A library database is both an electronic catalog and the access point to information from published works, such as magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias, journals and other resources.

• Library databases provide access to authoritative information sources.

• Library databases provide access to resources across a wide spectrum of topic and subject areas.

• Library databases provide access to many years worth of published information at no cost to students.

• Library databases allow you to to limit or expand your search results by using the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT.

• Library databases give you citation information to help you locate and cite the articles.

• Library databases give you an abstract or summary to tell you what the article is about.

• Most Library databases provide articles in full-text or PDF format.

Before you get started on your research, it's a great idea to brainstorm a list of keywords for all the key concepts in your research question.

Try some of these steps in thinking of keywords:

• Define your topic - You can't research or write about a topic if you can't articulate what it is.
• Try writing your topic down as a sentence or a question
• Think of keywords to describe each concept involved in your topic
• Focus on synonyms and related terms. What are other ways to state your topic? Is there a specific word that will describe an abstract concept in your topic?

Sample topic: Does the death penalty unfairly target minorities?

Concept 1: death penalty

Alternative Terms: capital punishment, execution

Concept 2: unfairly targeting minorities

Alternative Terms: discrimination, racism, prejudice

Alternative Terms: African-American, Hispanic, ethnic groups

Finding Articles on Your Topic 

Research on a subject is seldom complete without magazines, journals, and newspapers. You can find these articles in databases.

A database is a collection of information.  Most of the library's databases are electronic indexes, or lists, used to locate articles. You search these databases by typing in keywords.  If you have a hard time getting the articles you want or don't know what database to use, Chat with a Librarian and we'll help you.

To access the databases from off campus you will be prompted to enter your Cerritos College User ID and password. For more login information see the Database Login page.

See the Database Page for a complete description of the Cerritos College Library online resources.

Listed below are several databases where you will find articles on controversial issues and events. See the Database Page  for a complete description of the Cerritos College Library online resources.

Remember:

• Always search databases using only the keywords that best describe your topic
• Keywords can be combined into a search string with the operators "and", "or", "not"

Go to the Video Tutorials tab of this guide for videos on how to search the databases