Researching Business Projects Beyond “Googling”

ENGL 420: Business Writing Why more than “google”? GoogleNews delivers breaking news [but after 1 day usually have to subscribe to sources] Google doesn’t gate keep [so you have to judge quality/reliability] Google results in too many unrelated hits [and top hits often are bought or inflated by blogs]

ENGL 420: Business Writing 3 sources of online research Type 1: Popular Press [newspapers, wire services, magazines ] Type 2: Academic/Scholarly Research [journals publishing research that has been peer reviewed] Type 3: Statistics and other Numerical Data [government stats, SEC filings, industry profiles, etc.]

ENGL 420: Business Writing Source Type 1:Online News & Magazines The Popular Press helps establish why it is important to act now [exigency] NEWS LexisNexis Academic RDS Business and Industry MAGAZINES Business Source Premier [ebsco]

ENGL 420: Business Writing “News” in LexisNexis Choose LexisNexis Academic from library database list Try quick search first Remember that LexisNexis only retrieves 125 hits If want older news or a more precise search go to advanced search and change dates

ENGL 420: Business Writing “News” in RDS Business & Industry Choose Business & Industry from library database list Search for a phrase first If too broad, work on terms Limit by company, concept, marketing, industry, type of document, product, etc.

ENGL 420: Business Writing “Magazines” in Business Source Premier Choose Business Source Premier from library database list Select advanced search It has list of contents you can browse or search within: Journals Reports Magazines Industry & company profiles

ENGL 420: Business Writing EXAMPLE: Airing of “9/11” You want to know both sides of indecency controversy over airing of “9/11” for the 5 year anniversary You choose Lexis/Nexis from the databases list and search for the keywords 9/11 indecency

ENGL 420: Business Writing Airing of “9/11”-- 2 You find news about this as a way to locate the parties and controversy Next step would be to look up the FCC guidelines

ENGL 420: Business Writing EXAMPLE: Katrina Corporate Aid You want to find out about corporate aid for katrina You choose Business Source Premier from the databases list and search for the keywords katrina corporate aid

ENGL 420: Business Writing Katrina & Aid -- 2 Your results are on track -- 5 pages -- but modest You also get some subjects to try for new searches What else might you try?

ENGL 420: Business Writing EXAMPLE: Popular Press on Women & Mobile You want surveys of women’s use of mobile devices discussed in the popular press You choose Business and Industry from the databases list and it takes you to RDS Business and Industry (which gives many searching options)

ENGL 420: Business Writing Women & Mobile--2 You try some simple terms mobile AND gender You want survey results so you pick the document type Survey

ENGL 420: Business Writing Women & Mobile--3 Your results show 27 articles... & they bring up the popular stories you want

ENGL 420: Business Writing Source Type 2: Scholarly Research Scholarly Research helps to provide authoritative conclusions [ethos, logos] Business Source Premier [by EBSCO] has scholarship and much more You can search [by keyword, industry, company, journal] You can browse [industry profiles, reports, and more]

ENGL 420: Business Writing EXAMPLE: 9/11 & Business You are researching the impact 9/11 had on American business You search Business Source Premier using 9/11 impact And find 6958 hits

ENGL 420: Business Writing 9/11 & Business Impact--2 You add Business to the search 9/11 impact business And the hits shrink to Still a lot of hits

ENGL 420: Business Writing 9/11 & Business Impact--3 You need some journal citations, so you filter by academic journals That’s better And the first page looks ok

ENGL 420: Business Writing 9/11 & Business Impact--4 Actually, the academic articles look tough to read, so you filter by trade publications 923 While 923 are way too many, the titles look readable, and many are short Still need to reduce

ENGL 420: Business Writing Source Type 3: Online Statistics and other Numbers Statistics and Numerical Data are quickly accepted [ethos, logos] LexisNexis Statistical --government and other statistics LexisNexis Academic -- SEC filings; legal Company information is common in Business Source Premier, LexisNexis Academic, and RDS Business and Industry

ENGL 420: Business Writing “Statistics” in LexisNexis Choose LexisNexis Statistical from library database list Can search tables abstracts links to other data

ENGL 420: Business Writing EXAMPLE: Computer Use You want data on computer use by young people You search LexisNexis Statistical for computer use by age

ENGL 420: Business Writing Computer Use & Age -- 2 Results come from the Census Bureau, Gallup, and others Census numbers are usually accepted Dates of surveys may matter Don’t see a comparison of young and old

ENGL 420: Business Writing Choosing among Sources Consider: Fit between research and problem Reputation of the Sources [ethos] Quality of Content Gives new information [logos] Statistics, quotes, &/or references [backing] Academic article [authoritative conclusions] If others talk of this piece [reputation]

ENGL 420: Business Writing Documentation of Sources Keep records of your sources. Download/Print articles Enter reference for each article in a list of references [can cut and paste to word file while researching]