EN 6301 - Academic Writing for International Students

Open a Word Document – Type EN 6301 at the top 

Respond to the following prompts on your document: 

1. Your name:  

2. What is the topic of your paper?  

3. Go to the Discover box. Type one or two words or phrases to find articles about your topic. What did you type? 

4. Press "Search." Choose a full-text item that you might consider using to support your paper. Click on “All filters” near the top of the screen and check “Peer reviewed.” Click on the title of one of the items that interests you to bring up the full record for that item. At the top of the record, click on the large quotation mark icon (“). Choose the APA 7th Edition citation. Copy and paste it in your document.  

5. What interests you about this article?   

6. Select a different article from your list of results. At the top of the record, click on the large quotation mark icon (“). Choose the APA 7th Edition citation. Copy and paste it in your document. 

7. What interests you about this article?  

• Consider what type of information you need and where you might find it.
• Break your topic into key concepts and identify terms for each concept. Start with fewer words. Less yields more.
• Don't be too narrow in your search, especially initially.
• While it is possible to find sources on international or local topics, the strength of many of our academic databases is coverage of US national topics.
• Use Boolean connectors like AND, OR, and NOT to connect keywords. Many databases search the words as a phrase otherwise.
• In general, avoid using prepositions like "in," "of," and "on."
• Truncation characters such as an * (asterisk) can expand your search by retrieving various forms of a word, e.g., comput* retrieves computer, computers, computing, computation, etc.
• Look at the subject terms or descriptors that are used for articles that appear relevant. Try other searches using those terms.
• In the sciences and social sciences, when starting a journal article search on a topic, consider adding systematic review or meta-analysis, or literature review in your search.
• Consult a librarian or your faculty member for additional related terms.
• Think about which individuals or groups of people or organizations are associated with your topic. These might be additional terms to search.

• Look at subject terms applied to relevant articles. Did you find additional articles by searching these subject headings?
• Which terms or search strategies yielded the best results?
• Look at the abstract. Are there additional keyword terms you might search?
• How long is the article?
• In which journal or periodical was this article published? What is the journal's or magazine's reputation? How do you know?
• When was the article published? What time period does the research or article cover?
• Who is the author of the article? What are the author's credentials? What qualifies the author as an expert?
• What sources are cited in this article?
• How will this source advance the research project?
• See Evaluate Information for more criteria.

Looking for a specific journal, magazine, or newspaper?

Use Journals List to search for the title of a journal, magazines, or newspaper and determine if the library offers online access or print access to that publication.

If you're looking for articles about a topic, begin with library subscription databases. You may search all the databases below simultaneously in the Meta-Search box, under the Articles tab on the Get Started page of this Guide. Or search one or more of the databases below: