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Rhetoric

010:001

Bridget Draxler, Instructor

Brett Cloyd, Reference Librarian (brett-cloyd@uiowa.edu)

Presented March 3, 2009

See also Resources for Rhetoric Students

  

  1. Defining your topic
    CQ Researcher Restricted Resource – suggested resource. Background reading

    • "On-line Source". For your Library Project, the CQ Researcher article would be a good example of #6. "Online Source".
    • Authority. These articles are written by professional journalists and provide a good degree of background information to help you better understand a topic.
    • Searching or using the Browse By Topic feature should lead to possible articles.
    • Comprehensive. CQ Researcher Articles include a list of relevant resources on the topic, charts, statistics, and in most cases, an essay from experts who have differing views on a topic.
    • The companion database CQ Global Researcher includes an article on "Child Soldiers" that we will take a look at.
    • Finding other sources. Each CQ Researcher article has a bibliography. You can use this bibliography to complete class exercises. Keep the CQ Researcher window open once finished.
    • Locating a book. Clicking on the title of a book in CQ Researcher takes you to a database called WorldCat. The UI Libraries holdings should be listed there if we have it. This will be demonstrated in class.
    • Wikipedia. You may also be interested in comparing what's available in Wikipedia (see their "Military Use of Children" entry). While many faculty members will not like to see Wikipedia listed as a source in your work, some students are adding content to Wikipedia articles as they learn more about their topic.
 
  1. Smart Search . This includes the on-line catalog that describes books, journal and magazine holdings, government documents, videos, some on-line materials, and reference sources.

    • The class goal is identify 1-2 books which you will locate in the Main Library. If you cannot find the books listed in your CQ Researcher article, try finding other books about your topic (do keyword searching). Write down the call number and location. Once finished in 4037, you will locate these on the shelves. For  your exercise, everything you need to describe the book can be found in the brief results list.

      SmartSearch Results

  2. Government or Public Documents. There are a variety of print and on-line government information sources available through Smart Search, including the US Congressional Serial Set (historical materials), World Bank (contemporary, global issues) and recent hearings from the US Congress. On the left-hand navigation bar, look for "Government Publications" under the "Collection" heading.

    Government Publications higlighted in context

    Choose this to limit your search to government or public documents.

    There are certainly separate databases to search as well, including LexisNexis Congressional Restricted Resource. We will probably not have time to cover this resource, but you might like to look at it's Advanced Search features to track down full-text of Congressional Research Service reports (awesome, concise reporting on controversial public policy issues), as well as reports from Congressional committees and full-text of hearings back to the early 19th century.
     
  3. Articles. Smart Search will not help you directly find articles. Finding articles can be more difficult. Plus there are many different types of articles - popular magazine articles, newspaper articles, scholarly journal articles, etc. Students will take a couple approaches.

    The ability to read a citation in someone else's work and track it down is a useful skill. How would you track down this article I found in a CQ Researcher bibliography ?

    Frankel, Glen, "Road to Son's Freedom Paved with Anguish," The Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2002, p.A16.

    Suggestions:

    • Use SmartSearch (Libraries' home page) to search for the name of the publication in which the article is published (i.e. New York Times, Economist, Lancet).
    • This approach does not let you search for the article itself, so you will need to perform a second search once you've found the publication.
    • Many of the current news magazines (i.e. Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report) are held by the Main Library and located on the third floor, Journal and Magazines section. You might want to look for articles published in these publications when reviewing the CQ Researcher bibliography.
    • Newspapers in physical format are usually found in microfilm. This is not usually a desirable format for students. Many newspapers are available on-line either from the publisher's web site or an on-line library subscription resource (see below, number 4).
    • Goal of this section is to find one article in on-line full-text environment, and two articles you can track down in the Libraries' 3rd floor holdings.
    • If you cannot find your articles by utilizing the Libraries' Smart Search screen, you might try using some of the databases listed in the next section.
  1. Newspaper articles: Local and National

  2. Places where you might search for academic articles, or places you might like to initiate your search.

     
  1. Evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into your knowledge base and value system. Here are some sample activities to consider in addition to your assignment:

 

 

  1. Effectively use information to accomplish a specific purpose.

 

 

  1. Understand many of the ethical, legal and socio-economic issues surrounding information and information technology.