PEACE & JUSTICE QUARTER PROJECT February 11, 2009
Posted by Ms. Klemundt in Help with Assignments.trackback
I’ve put together some ideas for students working on the Quarter Project in Mr. Finch’s Peace & Justice class. Because your 4 choices are so diverse (and there are choices within choices), my suggestions are rather broad. As always, if you need specific help, stop by the library and ask.
First, use an encyclopedia to gather the basic facts about your research topic. You can use a print encyclopedia or Britannica Online, which you can access either from school or from home. If you need the username and password, stop by the library and pick up a blue sheet.
Second, use library catalogs (both the Res Library catalog and your local public library) to find books on your topic. Whether you’ve chosen research option 1, 2, 3, or 4, do a Subject search for names of individual people, events, organizations, or countries. To do a search for a person, enter the last name, then the first name; for example, Price, Leontyne. But don’t stop there! Look at broader subject headings to find even more information. Here are some examples of broader subject headings that might help you locate a chapter (not a whole book) about Leontyne Price – information you might not have found just by searching on her name.
- African Americans — Biography
- African American women — Biography
- Singers
- Women singers
- Sopranos (Singers)
The information you gathered by reading the encyclopedia articles in Step One will help you figure out what broader subject headings might apply to your research topic, whether it’s a person, an event, an organization, or a country. Here are some others to get you started:
- Suffrage
- Suffrage — United States
- Suffragettes
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- Civil rights
- Civil rights — United States
- South America
- Central America
- Middle East
- United States — Emigration and immigration
Third, there are some databases that we subscribe to that might be useful. You will need the usernames and passwords to access these databases, so if you don’t have one, stop by the library and pick up a blue sheet. I’ve already mentioned Britannica Online. Here are a few others:
- Readers’ Guide Full Text Select. Once you login, click on the checkbox to the left of “Readers’ Guide FT Select” to search that database. It contains broad coverage on a variety of topics. Once you do a search, look at the left-side menu for a list of subject headings. These can help you find related material. Go here for a link to an introduction to using this database.
- Current Issues : Reference Shelf Plus. Once you login, click on the checkbox to the left of “Current Issues : Ref Shelf Plus” to search that database. This database will be helpful if you have a country to research, but there are also entries on the history of women’s rights and civil rights. Go here for a link to an introduction to using this database.
- Gale Literature Resource Center. Will be useful for researching novelists, poets, and other writers. Go here for a link to an introduction to using this database.
- CQ Researcher. Will be most useful for information on the countries in Option 4, but also search for information on civil rights and women’s rights.
- FACTS.com’s Issues & Controversies. This is most useful for information on current topics, like the countries in Option 4. It will not be as useful for historical events or biographical information.
Fourth, there are many good, credible websites out there that can help you in your research. Here are a few portals and sites to get you started.
- Librarians’ Internet Index (http://www.lii.org) Start here no matter your topic. You may strike out, but chances are greater that you will find some worthy sites.
- Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org) The easiest way to access the websites gathered here is to do some searches, then look at the categories listed under your “hits.” They are like subject headings in a library catalog; you can click on those categories and get more websites about that topic.
- Library of Congress Country Studies (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html)
- CIA World Fact Book (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html)
- BBC News Country Profiles (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/country_profiles/default.stm)
Make sure you always know who is authoring and sponsoring the website and that you can defend your assessment of the site as “credible.”
Finally, for help formatting your bibliography, use the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/). Use the right-side menu under “Research and Citation” to find Formatting and Style Guides for both MLA and APA. Library staff will also be happy to help you check that your citations are properly formatted.
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