Questions related to library resources for projects? Contact Brian Simboli   8-5003;  brs4@lehigh.edu

CLASS EXERCISE

In this exercise, please find resources that relate to the topic you wish to pursue for the final paper for the class (see syllabus), or the podcast.

First, download this Word document, which you can email to Professor Herrara when you're done.

As you find sources, put your answers to the questions below in the Word document.

Find a topic that you will be the subject of your paper or podcast.

1. Find two sources of background information

Find two sources of information that will help give a broad overview of your topic or that help clarify concepts or terminology you encounter in your research. This is "background information".

(a.)

One should be a website that satisfies the criteria for website reliability--called the "craap" test--in the page of this guide about evaluating sources.  Do not use Wikipedia as one of the answers—though Wikipedia can be a stepping stone to finding other articles.

Use the Advanced Google search.

Indicate why you think the website is reliable.

(b).

The other should be an encyclopedia, if you can find one that is relevant. For encyclopedias, go to the Finding Sources of this guide, then see the box about "Background Information Sources" and find the encyclopedia tab.

Put the title of the encyclopedia article and its URL into your Word document.

2. Find one popular articles

First, review the page “Scholarly versus Popular Articles”.

Then go to the Finding Articles page and search the resources in the box devoted to newspaper and magazine article databases. Newspapers and magazine articles are examples of "popular articles".

Some of the databases also allow you to find scholarly articles, so follow the details in those cases about how to limit your results to popular (not scholarly) articles.

 You can also find a popular article by searching Advanced Google, then in the search results look at the top of the page and click on news.

3. Find two scholarly articles

For this exercise, go to the Finding Sources page, scroll down to the Article Databases box, and select the "Scholarly" tab. Some of the databases have popular articles, so make sure to follow the instructions for finding scholarly articles.

Find a scholarly article in the search results. Read over the abstract. TIP: some databases have a link to later articles published later in time that cite the article you like. If you see a link like this, you can try out clicking it to find an additional article that may be relevant to your topic.

Now see if you can get to the full text of the article. Either the database itself will link to the full text, or you can get to it from "Lehigh Links"  or you will would have to order it via "ILLiad" from Lehigh Links. Please indicate what you find. (No need to order the article via ILLiad!). For a refresher about "Lehigh Links", go to the "Finding Sources" page of this guide and then see the box labeled "Accessing Full Text".

Then cite the item in APA style.

STEPS FOR CITING IN APA STYLE:

(i) To understand what your goal is, go to How to Read Citations. Scroll down. Select the APA Examples tab. Then look at the example of the APA reference style for journal articles.Take note of how it is structured. Compare it to the actual article.

(ii) Now use ZoteroBib to put your articles into APA style. See the page of this guide "Citing Your Work" for how to use ZoteroBib.

(iii) Tools like ZoteroBib will not always render a reference accurately. Check the reference you found by using ZoteroBib against the examples for citing here. That is, see if ZoteroBib left out anything or had an inaccuracy. You can make edits within ZoteroBib.

4. Find one Review Article

Recall that "review articles" are a special type of scholarly article that provides a high-level overview of recent developments in a field. They can be a good starting place for research after you have reviewed background information and before you go on to read scholarly articles that are not review articles. (Don't confuse review articles with "peer review". Review articles are a type of scholarly article. Peer review is the process by which experts evaluate an article someone wants to publish in a scholarly journal.)

Search for a review article in one of the two ways below.  Tip: sort the results with most recent first.  If you can't find one quickly, find one that is at least somewhat related. After you find one, record the name of the database in which you found the article plus the article title.

Search the Annual Reviews database to find a review article about your topic.

Or try Web of Science to find one. In the search results, look on the left to filter for review articles. See below:

5.  Find one ebook

Go to ASA, the search engine near the top of the library homepage.  To limit to ebooks, see the filter on the right of the search results. There's a tutorial on this guide about searching for books. See it at "Background Information Sources: Books and Ebooks" (scroll down there).

Put the book title into the word document.

6.  Find one government source

See the Government Resources page of the library guide. Hunt around in the links there, or if you want, use the advanced google search capability mentioned there, using the limit to “.gov” items.

Put the title and the URL into the word document.

Set up an ILLiad account

While you won’t use it for this exercise, spend two minutes setting up an ILLiad account. Go to http://library.lehigh.edu/ill. ILLiad enables you to order articles or books that Lehigh does not have. Click on ILLiad. Fill out required one-time registration information. *You don’t need to order articles for the exercise, but you may find ILLiad useful later in the course.* Wait until you are sure you need an article before using ILLiad.

Palci on the webpage on the same webpage is another service normally used to find print books that Lehigh does not have; it can be useful throughout your career at Lehigh.

IMPORTANT:  WHEN YOU ACTUALLY WRITE YOUR PAPER OR DO A PRESENTATION:

1.

We focused in the exercise on formatting a journal article reference in APA. Go here to see how to cite formats other than journal articles, such as books.

2.

When you write your paper, keep in mind the distinction between "in-text" citations and end of the paper references.

To learn more about using ZoteroBib for in-text citations, see the video tutorial about ZoteroBib in this guide.

For examples of in-text citations, see here.  

3.

See "Sources in a Digital Assignment (such as presentation slides)" on this page, on the right here. Also, see the Presentations and Visuals page of this guide.

4.

Here is another resource for APA:   Purdue OWL.