Lecture Three: Step 3 - The Literature Search INST 250/4

 How does the formulation of the research topic help you in your research?  What are some strategies to help you discover a topic?  Why does one write up a preliminary thesis and outline?  How does a thesis differ from a research topic? INST 250/4

 A declaration  A statement that will control the paper’s direction  A sentence that will confine the paper’s content.  A thesis statement will propose a conclusion The author will defend/ try to convince the reader/ argue the thesis statement in the paper. INST 250/4

Keywords are words or phrases Discrimination against young women in the classroom, known as ‘shortchanging” harms the women academically, socially and psychologically. INST 250/4

Early intervention programs aimed at improving the literacy in children at risk of failure will lead to societal benefits. early literacy beginning reading programsintervention at riskpotential drop outs benefitsimpact, advantages INST 250/4

 Be as specific as possible to describe the concepts in your thesis  Word endings adolescents or adolescence  Variant spellings behavior or behaviour  Avoid using words that have multiple meanings (homographs) primary present INST 250/4

 Step 3: The Literature search ◦ Facts vs Opinions ◦ Locating scholarly information ◦ Types of sources ◦ Primary vs secondary sources  Library’s Online Catalogue  Searching CLUES ◦ Known item search ◦ Keyword search ◦ Boolean operators and Wildcards ◦ Limits INST 250/4

1. Select your topic 2. Develop a preliminary thesis 3. Conduct a literature search 4. Create a working bibliography 5. Evaluate sources 6. Write the final thesis 7. Prepare the paper & bibliography INST 250/4

Sources Library catalogue Indexes & abstracts Web sources INST 250/4

 Multi-stepped and lengthy phase of research process  Focus will be on the use of database- driven retrieval tools: ◦ Library catalogues ◦ Subject-specific, multi-disciplinary, and specialized databases ◦ Web-based search engines INST 250/4

Research papers contain both facts and opinions taken from outside sources  Fact ◦ Denotes something that exists ◦ Can be verified or proven ◦ Example: Number of children who are reading below grade level by the age of eight  Opinion ◦ Is an idea about a fact or another opinion ◦ Is an interpretation, a deduction, or a supposition ◦ Example: Reasons why children are reading below grade level A fact can be confirmed, whereas an opinion can be explained or defended but not proven definitively. INST 250/4

 Locating scholarly information  Primary vs Secondary Sources  Evaluating the information ◦ Documentation ◦ Currency ◦ Review INST 250/4

◦ A document or object that was created as the original original words of its creator/author ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or translations acceptable): Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records, journals CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art, photographs RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: Pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings ◦ Can quote more extensively from primary sources as they will have direct relevance to paper ◦ INST 250/4

 The Diary of Anne Frank - Experiences of a Jewish family during WWII  The Constitution of Canada - Canadian History  Pottery - Native American history  Watercolour painting of Montreal – Canadian Art History  A journal article reporting NEW research or findings INST 250/4

 Secondary sources ◦ Works about someone or about their accomplishments or findings ◦ Discusses the primary sources ◦ An interpretation, evaluation or analysis ◦ INST 250/4

 A journal/magazine article which interprets or reviews previous findings  A textbook  An analysis of poetry  A biography ◦ e.html INST 250/4

 “Doing research is all about trust. If you trust the person who created a secondary source, then there isn't a problem about using it. However, if you don't trust that person, if you think their version is a exaggerated or biased, or if you want to see the original evidence for yourself, then you have to go to the primary sources. “ ◦ From INST 250/4

 Newspaper  Blog post  Census data  Weather report INST 250/4

What is in CLUES?CLUES ◦ Books ◦ Journals (Periodicals) ◦ Video ◦ Music ◦ Reserve items ◦ Theses ◦ Special collections ◦ Eresources – ebooks & ejournals ◦ Indexes & abstracts INST 250/4

CLUES contains links to full-text purchased by the Library for Concordia students and faculty. CLUES The first place to start your research! INST 250/4

 Preselected fields ◦ Author ◦ Title ◦ Journal Title ◦ Subject Heading ◦ Call Number ◦ Video Search ◦ Advanced keyword ◦ Author/Title ◦ Government Document Number ◦ ISBN/ISSN/Music Number ◦ Other Number (OCLC) ◦ Special Collections ◦ Databases Search (Name & Subject) INST 250/4

 Known item search, use:  Search Options (with tips) INST 250/4

Boolean Operators Three operators that are used to logically combine keywords within a search statement AND OR NOT INST 250/4

 AND ◦ Used between terms expressing dissimilar concepts ◦ BOTH terms must appear in results ◦ Example: Literacy AND elementary INST 250/4 Literacy (1426 recs) Elementary (4442 recs) Total retrieved: 180 records

 OR ◦ Used between terms expressing a similar concept ◦ EITHER term must appear in results ◦ Example: Literacy OR Reading INST 250/4 Literacy (1426 recs) Reading (5686 recs) Total retrieved: 6734 records

 NOT ◦ Used to eliminate unwanted terms from search results ◦ NOTed term(s) must not appear in the results ◦ CLUES uses “AND NOT” ◦ Example: Literacy NOT adult INST 250/4 Literacy (1426 recs) Adult (2604 recs) Total retrieved: 1237 records

Using our keywords for the two main concepts… Early literacy beginning reading programsintervention …we can design the following search statement: (early literacy OR beginning reading) AND (programs OR intervention) INST 250/4

CLUES INST 250/4

Phrase Searching ◦ Use quotes around two or more words ◦ Terms will appear side by side in the order specified Example: “food security” Wildcards Words may be right-hand truncated using an asterisk ('*') in place of other characters. The '*' wildcard may also be embedded in a search string. You may use '?' to replace a single character anywhere within a word. Examples : environment* polic*, wom?n INST 250/4

Limiting fields ◦ Those fields that contain information common to many records ◦ Restrict search results by certain limits ◦ Examples: Language, Date, Material type INST 250/4

 Arrange your concepts into a logically correct search statement:  (Inuit OR Eskimo) AND (Food or nutrition) AND Canad*  Use: Advanced Keyword  Look at the record to find your keywords – what colour are they? INST 250/4

 Arrange your keywords into a logically correct search statement:  Use: Advanced Keyword  Look at the record to find your keywords – what colour are they? INST 250/4

 Beginning the literature search ◦ Form judgments about the type and quality of information that is to be retrieved ◦ Scan material to learn about purpose, scope, relevant ideas etc. ◦ Takes notes on discoveries  CLUES ◦ Fields in CLUES records ◦ Keyword searches on CLUES ◦ Use of advanced commands in Keyword search  Next week: Searching Subject headings INST 250/4