Research Guides: ENGL 1302: Composition &amp; Rhetoric II (Nusbaum): Finding Articles

The Research Process: Step 1 - Background Research

Scholarly articles are not the place to start your research. First, you need to get familiar enough with your topic that you can start to narrow it down, and for that, you need more general information. This will help you develop a context for your topic as well as get to know the specialized terms used by experts.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
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Useful when you're starting out on a research project. Do simple searches to find topic introductions in a variety of subjects. The mind map tool will help you discover related ideas and terms.
Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles from different points of view on important issues in today's news, plus statistics, images, related court cases, and more.
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
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Provides topic overviews as well as collects a variety of sources, including statistics, reference materials, journal articles, news articles, images, and audio broadcasts.
New York Times: Subscription Access This link opens in a new window
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Find both news and reviews as well as access to historical NY Times issues dating back to 1851.

First time user: To get access, you need to first register for an NYT account.
1. Click the link. You will have to enter your LSC library barcode.
2. Select Create Account and complete registration fields. Use your LSC email address!
3. Once you have an account, you may access NYTimes.com and NYT mobile apps like any subscriber, or go through this link but select "log in."

Note: Site passes will expire after 365 days. To renew, you will have to activate a new pass by repeating this process.

If Google Chrome shows a warning about this link, hit Ignore. You must use the proxy to get the special access.

Now that you have explored your topic, finding keywords and concepts to narrow your focus, you are ready to dig deeper in the Top Article Databases linked below.

Find More Databases

Even More Databases:

Consider which disciplines apply to your specific topic when choosing your databases.

Research Databases (Main Page)

Databases (A-Z List)