Geography 311

Tim Miller - twm2@humboldt.edu - 826-4959

Basic Research

Goals

Today: 

  • Choosing a topic
  • Thinking of keywords
  • Searching in databases
    • using Booleans
    • filters
    • subject headings
    • saving your work
  • citations

Goals

What do YOU want to learn about research?

Sample Assignment

Write a 3-5 page essay about a current issue relevant to the profession using a minimum of three (3) articles. At least one (1) must be a peer-reviewed journal article. All articles should be current- published in the last five (5) years. Include a statement of why the issue is relevant, provide the evidence, and conclude with some recommendations on how to best deal with the issue. The paper should be written following APA style guidelines and include a reference list of your cited articles.

Sample Assignment

Write a 3-5 page essay about a current issue relevant to the profession using a minimum of three (3) articles. At least one (1) must be a peer-reviewed journal article. All articles should be current- published in the last five (5) years. Include a statement of why the issue is relevant, provide the evidence, and conclude with some recommendations on how to best deal with the issue. The paper should be written following APA style guidelines and include a reference list of your cited articles.

Topic

Sample Assignment

Write a 3-5 page essay about a current issue relevant to the profession using a minimum of three (3) articles. At least one (1) must be a peer-reviewed journal article. All articles should be current- published in the last five (5) years. Include a statement of why the issue is relevant, provide the evidence, and conclude with some recommendations on how to best deal with the issue. The paper should be written following APA style guidelines and include a reference list of your cited articles.

Basic Requirements

Sample Assignment

Write a 3-5 page essay about a current issue relevant to the profession using a minimum of three (3) articles. At least one (1) must be a peer-reviewed journal article. All articles should be current- published in the last five (5) years. Include a statement of why the issue is relevant, provide the evidence, and conclude with some recommendations on how to best deal with the issue. The paper should be written following APA style guidelines and include a reference list of your cited articles.

Purpose of the articles

Sample Assignment

Write a 3-5 page essay about a current issue relevant to the profession using a minimum of three (3) articles. At least one (1) must be a peer-reviewed journal article. All articles should be current- published in the last five (5) years. Include a statement of why the issue is relevant, provide the evidence, and conclude with some recommendations on how to best deal with the issue. The paper should be written following APA style guidelines and include a reference list of your cited articles.

Citation & Styles

Develop your topic

Choose something of interest to you!

Topic: Racism in sports mascots

Keywords: what I already ‘know’ about the topic

  • Current issues with Native American movements

    • Washington Pro Football Team

    • #NotYourMascot

    • eradication offensive native mascotry

  • Past issues, how they were resolved

    • State why, Describe why, Recommendations

Develop your topic

Keywords from my topic:

  • mascot, sports mascot
  • racism, race
  • stereotypes, offensive stereotypes
  • Native American
  • Washington R*skins

Start broad and narrow down

  • mascot AND racism - simple, easy to add terms later

Research Secrets:

There are no magic tricks

  • Research requires time & patience

Try different things

  • there is no one search that will uncover everything that you're looking for- you will need to repeat, repeat, repeat

Booleans

AND, OR & NOT

Subject Headings

  • Similar to hashtags in social media
  • Curated by specialists 
  • Assigned to the article when it is added to the database
  • Encapsulates a concept, not just a specific word

Subject Headings

e.g. the subject heading 'Native Americans' would include:

  • American Indians
  • Native Americans
  • American aborigines
  • Eskimos

To get all of these using a keyword search:

  • American Indians OR Native Americans OR American aborigines OR Eskimos

Let's try it out

Basic Research

By Tim Miller

Basic Research

How to strategize for a basic research assignment.

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