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Humanities 260 Subject Guide LRC@TCC
 Scope: Help in doing research assignments for the online class
Survey of Twentieth Century Culture. You'll notice the greatest, and
most challenging, part of writing a research paper is the research.
Why use this guide?
- Clicking through this guide helps with each of your graded
assignments.
- You will learn library research steps for this
class and for your personal needs.
- Videos and guides explain frequently asked questions.
What one thing should you learn? Evaluate
your sources so you know when to use Google,
Wikipedia, or other online information.
Help?
Choosing a Topic (Steps 1 & 2)
For choosing topics try the overview
of library research. It will also help you with your criteria
for evaluating sources.
¹Submit
your research proposal. ¹Three
tips for a good paper. Organize
your sources with this citations
worksheet (.doc) (.pdf)
Do some exploratory research
for ideas, overviews, and background information using:
Gale
Virtual Reference Library (r)
Oxford
Reference Online Premium (r)
TCC databases of articles (including
online videos)
You can search
multiple databases at one time ¹.
*Wikipedia? Although good for "common knowledge" you should
NOT use Wikipedia for your papers. Think of it as a chalkboard
in a hallway that anyone, even you, can add, edit, and erase. So
what
you use may be
totally
wrong or gone!
*Google offers Google Scholar that searches academic level resources.
It may be helpful but you still have to be the judge
of the quality of what you find.
Research Plan (Step 3)
Plan your research and
if done properly you will have a good start on your paper based
on quality resources. I've
include
an
example of a research plan. Notice that a good reseach plan includes
evaluating and citing sources.
Your plan may be different for this class. Organize your sources with
this citations worksheet.
Serious Research (Step 4)
Look for specific information for your paper and evaluate
the credibilty of your sources. You should use a variety of sources
but mainly books and scholarly journal articles, not magazines. What's
the difference between magazines and journals? This ¹video
on scholarly versus popular sources explains.
Find
Books (Library Catalog) Use keywords to find one
or two titles
then click
on the subject headings to find other similar titles. You
can limit your search by campus holdings, language and format,
including
online books.
Google Books
advanced search Use the subject box and limit your results
to previews and full text. I found some great information on several
of your
topics.
Find Articles
(Databases) are
collections of articles selected and paid for because of their quality. What's
the difference between a database and a search engine like Google?
For this class I recommend:
Academic Search Complete
(part 1
part2)
¹helpvideo
America: History and Life
Communication and Mass Media Complete
Humanities International Complete
JSTOR
OmniFile Full Text Select
Online Videos (including Films for the Humanities)
Science in Context
U.S. History in Context
World History in Context
Learn more about databases
Group Project, Citations, and Ready Reference (Step 5)
With your group decide on your packaging and citation
format. How you create your ready reference is up
to the
group.
APImages a
licensed database of images from the Associated Press that allows
educational use of images without the worry of violating copyright.
Library
guide for writing and citations Help with APA, MLA including
examples.
Annotated
Bibliographies or for this class, Ready Reference Sources
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