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ENGL 100 (Birch Online) SP25

 

Welcome ENGL 100!

I'm here to support you with your research.

Questions? Email Stacey at svonwinckelmann@miracosta.edu

MLA Citations Assignment
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Keyword Tips

Keywords are the most essential ideas in your topic.

Advanced Search Strategies

  • “Quotation marks” keep words together: "gender stereotypes"
  • AND searches all terms: "gender stereotypes" AND media
  • Truncation (shift + 8 to get the asterisk) searches many variations of a word at once:
    • stereotyp* - stereotype, stereotypes, stereotyping

Grow Your Keyword List With

  • Words you read in abstracts, article titles, and subject headings

Keyword Examples

Societal Issue Keyword Suggestions
Gender Roles
  • "Gender stereotypes" AND media
  • Femininity AND "popular culture"
  • Masculinity AND advertising
  • "Gender roles" AND film
  • "Gender norms" AND television
Racism
  • "Racial stereotypes" AND television
  • "Racial representation" AND film
  • "Racial identity" AND "popular culture"
  • "Racial attitudes" AND media

Database Searching

1. Spelling counts! Not seeing many results? Double-check your spelling.

2. You May Not Find Everything in One Place - It's unlikely that a single source will cover all aspects of your topic. Instead, think of each source as providing pieces of a puzzle.

3. Use Author's Words - Think about how experts in the field phrase the concepts you're researching and try those words in your search.

Keyword searching is not an exact science, and you may need to experiment with different combinations to get the best results.

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