EN 2211: Elements of Writing

J. Dempsey

Inspirations & Documents for Your Narrative

Research Strategies

Off campus?

Access resources with proxy.

Unsure where to even start? Check out our Research Circuit: Library Skills Tutorial => Developing A Topic

Primary Resource Research Guide | Digital Collections - Browse For Ideas

Reference Materials: Print & Online

Biography Resource Center - check dates/facts on people
Gale encyclopedia of multicultural America online or Reference E184 A1 G14 1995 v.1-2
Oxford Reference Online - History plus (online books) - check facts/dates
Oxford English Dictionary "the OED" - amazing dictionary with word origins
Britannica Encyclopedia online
For news/events... try Lexis-Nexis Academic and other news databases

Find Books

at WPI (library catalog) | Beyond (WorldCat)

Browse WorldCat to find another book, that is not available at WPI. What library is it available at? Try Advanced Search to limit to ARC Academic Research Collaborative for library materials at Worcester area college libraries.

Browse the library catalog for one or two books that could be useful for your project and jot down the call number. _______________________________________________

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Follow up on subjects you find in catalog or WorldCat records. See Yale's Library of Congress Subject Headings - to Identify Primary Source Materials for subjects to search.

Find Articles: A Few Databases to Search

All databases listed are WPI subscriptions. Off Campus? Connect using WPI Proxy.

QuickFIND: multi-database search
Humanities International Complete
Literary Reference Center
MLA International Bibliography
LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic - current news, including book reviews

Even More Databases to Try....

Readers' Guide Index to Periodical Literature: References to popular magazine articles on all topics 1890 - 1982.
American History & Life/Historical Abstracts: References to academic articles on historic topics.
Gale Powersearch: Articles on all topics. Contains articles back to the 1980s but good coverage of historical topics.
JSTOR: Complete full text of important scholarly journals in a variety of academic fields. Coverage: Varies by publication but many back to late 1800s.
New York Times Historical: Complete full text. Coverage: 1851-2003.
More ...

Search within twoof the above databases for articles on your topic. Try to email at least one citation, or full text, to yourself. If you have trouble coming up with articles, review your keywords used and consider new search terms.

Search Journals @ WPI

by Journal Title

Getting Books & Articles Not at WPI

Need a Book that WPI Just Doesn't Have? Try WorldCat to ILL the Item or Get an ARC Card (< 2 min How-to movie)
Getting articles not at WPI: Try Interlibrary Loan. We’ll get the item for you and send you a PDF attached to an email.

Give Credit! Cite Your Sources

Questions?

Stop by the reference desk or set up a research consultation.

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Last modified: Feb 15, 2008, 10:35 EST