Resource Guides: ANTH& 207: Linguistic Anthropology: Researching the Final Project

Where to Search

List of Library Databases
Library Resources Info Sheet
From last year's students

For articles:

ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Articles from scholarly/peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Articles from peer-reviewed/scholarlyjournals, magazines and newspapers
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Articles from peer reviewed/scholarly journals and books in all disciplines.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Articles from peer-reviewed/scholarly journals, magazine, and newspapers from ethnic, minority and native presses.

For books:

Proquest Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
Books on all subjects from a wide range of academic and general publishers

OneSearch
Choose Books in the Material Type dropdown

Keywords

KEYWORDS are the terms related to your topic that you use to create searches. It's important to try a variety of keywords, and to broaden and narrow your search appropriately. So if you're thinking about researching differences in media representation of female and male politicians, begin by brainstorming alternate keywords for those terms:

Broad Term	Related	Narrower
MEDIA	TELEVISION, FILM, MOVIES, PUBLISHING	NEWS MEDIA, WORD CHOICE, EDITING, NEWS COVERAGE, NEWSPAPERS
FEMALE POLITICIANS	WOMEN	SENATORS, CONGRESSWOMAN, CANDIDATES, MOTHERHOOD, INDIVIDUAL NAMES
REPRESENTATION	DEPICTION	FOCUS, DESCRIPTIONS, UNFAIRNESS, DIFFERENCES, NEGATIVE

Then, combine keywords to create searches to use in Google (if you want websites and popular articles) or our Databases (if you want journal and magazine articles):

"FEMALE POLITICIANS" AND NEWS COVERAGE

ELECTIONS AND MOTHERHOOD AND MEDIA

"HILLARY CLINTON" AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION

Quotation marks search as phrase, meaning "POLITICAL DISCOURSE" will only return results with those words in that order, which severely narrows your search, so use them wisely! "SOCIAL MEDIA" in quotes is a good idea, "WHY WOMEN POLITICIANS HAVE MORE NEGATIVE COVERAGE" is NOT a good idea as those words are unlikely to appear in exactly that order.

AND narrows your search [results will include ALL terms]

OR broadens your search [results will include EITHER term]

Use them together:

(women OR females) AND "political campaigns" AND media

[the same as searching women AND "political campaigns" AND media + females AND "political campaigns" AND media]

Evaluating Sources

In the course, your sources may come from popular media, blogs, or social media. Make sure that you are taking the source into consideration in your project. If you are getting facts from a source, ensure that it is credible. If you are analyzing or critiquing a source, make sure it's clear in your project that you understand the limitations of that source.

Before using a source for factual information, ask yourself:

Is this information up-to date?

Does it give evidence or a citation?

Does the author of the source identify themself and do they have credentials about the topic they are discussing?

Does the resource exist to make money or to educate or for some other purpose?

If you need help determining if a source is credible, please email Haley or Chat with a Librarian 24/7.