Snohomish School District



Pathfinder11th Grade English Research PaperIntroduction:Inquiry research questions are open-ended, therefore there are multiple ways and media to approach when locating information on your topics. What resources work for one inquiry question may not work for a different question. Therefore, be prepared to run into dead ends when using a single source. If that happens, move to another media source to find information. Second, just because you find a source on your topic doesn’t mean the author is an expert, or their information is accurate. Take time to evaluate the source to make sure the information is accurate and just not the opinion of the author. This is especially true for Google searches.Reference sources:All research should start with locating reference sources on your topic. For quality and accurate information use our Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) at . The articles in these reference sources have been peer reviewed for their accuracy, so you may use these articles in your research paper. If you can’t locate your topic in GVRL, then use Wikipedia, . Remember, Wikipedia articles are not always accurate, so don’t use this information in your paper. Use Wikipedia for gathering background information on your topic, its links at the bottom of the article, and for alternative search descriptors.Identifying Descriptors:Many students use only one descriptor when searching for information on their topic. Using only one descriptor limits your research and you will miss all sorts of information on your topic. Reference sources allow you to expand your descriptor list. Example, if I was conducting research on the topic, “Why do women wear high heels?” In GVRL, I found over 3,000 articles which might have information on “high heels.” But by skimming some of these articles I discover I can search for information on this topic by also using history of high heels, Pined PINET, Cuban heels, jeweled heels, stiletto heels, Louis XIV, Christian Dior’s New Look 1947, Roger Vivier, boots, platform shoes, clogs, chopines, back pain and joint pain, body posture when wearing heels, varicose veins, and podiatry. These additional search terms add depth to my research. Use this pdf for writing down additional descriptors for your topic - .Premium Databases:Premium databases give you accurate and authoritative information on topics. Go to Online Resources, and click on the Premium Databases dropdown menu. For this assignment try using eLibrary, Gale’s Global Issues in Context, Gale’s Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ProQuest: Research Library, and ProQuest SIRS Discoverer. Not all these databases will have information on your topic, so if you don’t locate information you are looking for in one database try another database.Web Search Engines:Instead of using Google to search for web sites, use Google Scholar, , for locating authoritative and accurate information on your topic. Using Google Scholar will target your searches towards authoritative and accurate information on your topic. This is information you can use to quote or paraphrase in your paper. Also, try , . was specifically built for people to search using questions. Since your topic is in the form of a question this search engine may locate web pages Google doesn’t have links to. Lastly, Google covers about 22% of the Internet, so using a meta-search engine like Dogpile, , will not only search Google, but it will search Bing, Yahoo, MSN and Lycos with a single search, thereby giving you results beyond a single Google search. ................
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