English 101: Writing and Rhetoric - Whitford: Home

The first thing you're going to need to do is do some background research on your topic. Reference sources like encyclopedias are a great place to start. I usually recommend starting with our database Credo Reference (link below), which allows you to search lots of encyclopedia articles all at the same time. Wikipedia can also be a good place to look as well, just remember that Wikipedia isn't a source that you'll be allowed to cite in your assignment. Watch the below video to learn about reference sources.

Once you've researched the background of your topic, you'll need to think about what kinds of sources you'll need to find. Different types of research will require different types of sources.

Scholarly Articles: Scholarly articles are authoritative and reliable because they're written by experts and go through a peer review process (learn more about peer review with the video below). These types of sources tend to focus on very specific topics. They can also take a long time to write and publish, so they're not always the best choice when your information needs to be more timely.

Newspaper Articles: Newspapers are less authoritative than Scholarly articles, but since they take less time to write and publish can cover topics much more quickly. When using Newspaper articles, it's always a good idea to look up the author and newspaper before deciding to use their work. A simple Google search or reading their Wikipedia page can usually give you a good amount of incite.

Government Resources: There are lots of reliable resources from the state and federal government on a variety of topics. These sources are a great place to look when trying to find information that requires large data sets or other types of information that would be collected by government agencies. Try searching USA.gov to find these types of sources.

Websites: The quality of information on websites varies quite a bit. There can be good quality sources out there, but be careful to research the source before using it.

Once you've figured out the types of source that you might need, it's time to pick out a database. To pick out a database go to the Hunter Library website, click on Articles/Databases, go to where it says "Find Articles and Databases by Subject" and use the drop down menu to select a subject. You'll be presented with a list of databases with content in that subject area. Start with the databases in the "Best Bets" section.

You can also use the "One Search" on the home page of the Hunter Library website. The One Search is a tool that searches most of the library databases and the library catalog at the same time. It's a great tool but not often as precise as our individual databases.

Check out the videos below to get help with searching the One Search and our various databases.