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Ekstrom Library

English 102 Udelson Session 2: Home

Session Goals

  • Briefly review the key characteristics of scholarly sources.

  • Refine your search strategy, based on particular research questions and relevant academic subject areas.

  • Explore specialized databases across disciplines.

Activity 1: Refining Your Search Strategy

1. Add one of your current research questions to our online workspace. What are you interested in learning or discovering at this stage? What do you need to know more about?

2. Next, add at least five keywords that you associate with your research question. The keywords should be the most important words, issues, ideas, or concepts related to your research. You should consider words that have shown up in your research up to this point.

3. Finally, add at least two academic subject areas that might be relevant to your research question. Think broadly and creatively about the kinds of researchers that might be interested in your topic.

Activity 2: Exploring Databases Across Disciplines

1. In each database, search the word robots. Skim over the search results, including article titles, abstracts, and names of journals.

2. What topics, issues, or themes related to robots stand out in each database? How are the search results similar and different across databases?  

3. Which academic subject areas are most relevant to each database? List at least two subject areas for each database.

4. Choose one of the databases and explain how you might narrow a search related to robots. What tools are available in the database to narrow down your search? What keywords could you add to your search to make it more specific?

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Rob Detmering
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