Your instructor has provided you with an assignment prompt detailing the topic possibilities and research requirements for your paper. It is likely the topic is related to the broader concept of anti-intellectualism or mediation.  To begin, identify your research question and brainstorm for a few minutes to develop a solid list of keywords.  This will enable you to conduct a much more efficient and effective search in the database. 

 

For example, if your research question deals with how violent video games affect children's behavior and development - you might have a topic/keyword list like this:

 

violence, violent, aggressive, intense, brutal, brutality

video games, video gaming, computer game, electronic game

children, child, youth, adolescents, kids

 

With that solid list of keywords, you are ready to begin searching a database.  For more information on narrowing or expanding your topic and brainstorming a list of keywords, see the  Topic Finder

Return to Top

---

 

To Locate Books/Government Documents/Audiovisual Materials use the Library Catalog.

 

To locate magazine/journal/newspaper articles, use a research database- For a full-listing of all available library databases, click here. For a listing of quick guides on how to use specific databases, click here.  Researching from off-campus? SDSU Students, faculty or staff may call (1-800-786-2038) or email the Library Information Desk to obtain the user name and password for off-campus access.

EBSCOhost Megafile - A multi-disciplinary database providing full text for nearly 12,000 total publications and indexing & abstracting for more than 16,000 publications. In addition, the database contains more than 84,000 biographies, 86,000 primary source documents, 10,000 company profiles and an image collection of more than 107,000 photos, maps and flags.

LexisNexis Academic Provides online access to full-text and bibliographic information from newspapers, news and business magazines, newsletters, wire services, broadcast transcripts, and biographical sources.

ProQuest (If the link above does not work, click here.) This resource provides access to several different bibliographic and full-text databases covering a wide variety of disciplines and topics.

Return to Top

---

 

The Information Literacy and Research Guide provides significant information on learning how to evaluate a wide variety of information resources.  To view this information, click EVALUATING RESOURCES in the blue bar to the left. In addition, the library has a Quick Guide listing the five criteria for information evaluation.  To access that handout, click:  Information Evaluation . 

English 101 classes use the Modern Language Association style to document resources used for research.  Additional information on citing resources is available via the CITING AND ETHICS link in the blue bar to the left.  The library's quick guide on MLA Style is available at:  MLA Style Quick Guide

Return to Top

---