ENGL 201 (Wood) FA25

Library databases search differently than Google. Break down your topic into keywords. 

Boolean Operators (AND, OR) combine keywords for better results.

• AND searches all terms ("community college AND textbooks")
• OR finds either term; useful for synonyms ("books OR literature")

Phrase searching finds sources where the words appear together in that exact order. 

• “Quotation marks” keep words together ("literary canon")

MLA citations give credit to the sources you use in your research.

MLA (Modern Language Association) citations consist of two components:

• In-text citations within your paper include the author’s last name and page number
• Works Cited list at the end with full citation details for each source used

Scholarly articles are written by experts who share original research.

Scholarly articles go through a peer review process and often include an Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Bibliography. When choosing a scholarly article, look for these characteristics: 

• Technical language 
• Citations: Both In-Text and Bibliography
• Tables, charts, and graphs

How to spot a scholarly article: Is it a Magazine or Scholarly Journal?

Lateral Reading is a key fact-checking skill to evaluate information.

It requires leaving the source in question to investigate the source elsewhere. This helps with questions about authority, accuracy, and bias.

• Open a new browser tab
• Search the source's website name (i.e. National Geographic)
• Check trustworthy sites to learn more about the source