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ENGL 2 Chaney

Social Justice Sources

  1. Watch the video below
  2. Search for sources in CQ Researcher using your keywords

  1. Watch the video below
  2. Search for sources in Opposing Viewpoints  using your keywords

  1. Academic Search Complete is a multidisciplinary database with journals, magazines, and newspapers on almost any topic. A good place to start your research!

  2. Search for sources in Academic Search Complete using your keywords. Limit your results to full-text.

OneSearch is a tool that allows you to search many Library collections at the same time.

OneSearch works well when you want to access a wide variety of sources at once, and is a good tool when starting your research. OneSearch is convenient, but like Google, yields an overwhelming number of results. Be prepared to use the limiters on the left to refine and focus your results.

Watch this 3-minute video for an overview of how to search and refine your results in OneSearch.

graph and map displaying statisticsSocial Justice Sources

Statistics

Basic Search Tips

SearchUnlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. So you'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas - the KEYWORDS.

Example Topic: How did the history of Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Massacre get erased?  What is the impact of that erasure, and what might be the impact of recovering that history?

The specifics of your topic will matter when selecting sources, but for searching you only need the most essential components.

Keywords: Black Wall Street, Tulsa Massacre, erased, erasure, recovering

Research question "How did the history of Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Massacre get erased? What is the impact of that erasure, and what might be the impact of recovering that history?" with the following keywords highlighted: "Black Wall Street," "Tulsa Massacre," "erased," "erasure," and "recovering."

Most words have synonyms that mean the same, or very similar, things. For each keyword in your topic, try to come up with at least one synonym. Not all keywords will have synonyms, but many do!

Example: 

Keyword: erase     Synonym: erasure

 

Keep an Eye Out

Sometimes scholars use terms that you might not be familiar with, or which might mean something very specific within the discipline. While searching, look for unfamiliar terms or words that show up a lot. Try searching for those and see if you find more relevant sources.

Example of tools to refine searchLibrary databases have built in search tools. Try some of these:

  • Date: Limit your search to sources published between specific years.
  • Scholarly Journals: Limit your search to scholarly journal articles.
  • Format: Limit your search to articles, books, images, etc.
  • Subject: Think of subjects as official hashtags. Use them to find sources about that subject.

Look on the left of your search results, or for an "advanced search" page to find these tools - and more!

Advanced Search Tips

Boolean search using the keywords "erasure" AND "Tulsa Massacre"

Use the operator AND to find only sources that mention both keywords.

erasure AND Tulsa Massacre

This search will bring back fewer results than searching either keyword on its own.

Boolean search using the keywords "erase" OR "erasure"

Use the OR operator to expand your search with additional keywords.

erase OR erasure

This will find sources that include either word, so you'll see more results than by searching for just one keyword.

Advanced search in OneSearch using the keywords "Black Wall Street," history, and erase OR erasure

Use the “QUOTES” strategy to search for several words in a phrase.

"Black Wall Street"

This will bring back results that only use that exact phrase.