For your Unessay assignment in this class, you can do or create anything you want on your topic of choice! There are requirements though, some of which the resources in this guide will help you fulfill.
Specifically, the videos, worksheets, and resources on this page will help you ensure that your project is accurate and truthful (i.e. your information is credible and trustworthy) and complete (i.e. you have covered all relevant aspects, including different perspectives/experiences of the topic). It will also give you tips on how to conduct research using the library, if you decide that is necessary/appropriate for your project.
The fillable research worksheet below will guide you through all three of the above steps: exploring your chosen topic, brainstorming keywords for researching it, and evaluating your chosen sources:
Exploring your topic, developing a search strategy, and evaluating your sources
For more info on brainstorming keywords, watch this two-minute video (from PSU Libraries):
The best place to start searching the library is Primo--the main search form on the library homepage. The PDF below provides step-by-step instructions for researching using Primo to find articles and books, along with additional tips for searching and finding scholarly sources in general. (If you need a refresher on what a scholarly, peer-reviewed source is, check out this 3-minute video).
How to search using Primo (the WOU library search engine)
To begin searching in Primo, just go to the library homepage at https://library.wou.edu/ and enter your keywords in the main search box:
You can also find scholarly articles and books (mainly articles) by searching in one or more of the smaller, subject-specific databases that the library subscribes to, as described in this PDF:
Five steps to searching any database (ex. EBSCO's PsycInfo)
Linked below are some subject-specific additional databases you may want to use to conduct your research. Just like in Primo, search using your brainstormed keywords. Most of what is available in these databases will show up in your Primo searches, but since these databases are smaller and subject-specific you will get fewer results and therefore might find them easier to manage. Most of the results in these databases will be journal articles, rather than books.
Academic Search Complete is a multi-disciplinary database that provides citations and full-text for articles published in nearly 5,740 journals, including more than 5,310 peer-reviewed titles.
Provides online full-text access to the archives of more than 1300 scholarly journals, some of which date from the 19th century. JSTOR does not include recently published articles. Due to publisher restrictions, there is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the issues available in JSTOR.
Social Work Reference Center covers a wide array of topics such as adolescent health, aging, end-of-life care, clinical social work and diversity. Content is organized in a way that makes it easy for users to get answers to questions quickly and easily.
SocINDEX features millions of records with subject headings from a sociological thesaurus designed by subject experts and expert lexicographers.
Linked below are other library guides with resources related to race and social justice that may be relevant to your topic:
Writing a paper? Wondering how to format in APA, MLA, or another format? Check out our citation tools and guides.
NoodleTools helps you write citations in MLA, APA, or Chicago format, and create annotated bibliographies. It also has tools to create notecards, draft an outline of your paper and keep track of "To Do" tasks. Citations can be exported directly to your Google Drive, or to Word or other formats.
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