Research tips and tricks for an American Foreign Policy class

1. Research
Tips & Tricks
POLI 346
American Foreign Policy
Megan Fitzgibbons, Liaison Librarian

2. Let’s talk about cookies

3. Let’s talk about cookies
What’s in your cookies?
What’s in your term paper???

5. Your task: in groups of 3
1. Find one information source that
you would use for a paper on
George Bush’s “axis of evil” speech.
2. Share what you found with the
class

7. Too much information?

8. Information flow
Academic analysis

9. 9
How do the messages of these sources differ?
Which is appropriate for your assignment?

10. Choosing your ingredients
Information Type Description
Books (scholarly monographs) Broad, thorough, academic treatment of a
subject.
Academic book chapters Examination of a specific topic. Similar to
journal articles.
Scholarly journal articles Detailed scholarly examination of a topic. Peer-
reviewed.
News & trade magazines Popular or non-scholarly treatment of a subject.
Government documents Official documents published by government
agencies.

11. The Course Guide

13. This guide lists links to
resources that will help
you find information for
your assignment.

14. Encyclopedias
are an excellent
place to start!
Written by
named
experts
Gives a
summary of
Lists further
the topic
reading

15. Different from searching the web…
Databases are like directories for
finding academic articles

16. Researchers Articles
Journals
Other documents Databases

17. Databases:
What’s the difference???
 Each database provider chooses different journals,
books, etc. to include in their index.
 Some are specialized directories (e.g., only legal
journals), while some are broad (e.g., social sciences in
general, with a few journals from each discipline).
 You will find that some of the databases overlap, but
they all have some unique content.

18. My topic
Ronald Reagan and foreign policy

19. Any of these databases
is a good place to start.
We’ll look at America: 19
History & Life today.

20. 20
Try synonyms and
alternative terms when
you search.

21. Limit to scholarly articles 21

22. 22
No full text here? Try to
“FindIt” at McGill.

23. 23
Click to open the full text of
the article

24. Google Scholar:
also a good place to find
articles and working papers.
Set up your preferences to
see links to McGill.

25. Search tip 1
“Exact phrase”
Examples:
 “New York”
 “Ronald Reagan”
 “climate change”

26. Search tip 2
 AND
“foreign policy” AND bush
 OR
“foreign policy” OR “foreign affairs”

27. Search tip 3: fill in the blank
America
Americ* American
Americans

28. Search tip 4
 Subject words
Look for the standardized
subject words or “descriptors”
in the database

29. Research process
1. Select a research tool
2. Find out what has been
published
3. Find the text of the item

30. If full text is not available online
Search the library catalogue for the journal title
If not available…
Use CREPUQ or Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

31. Off campus?
Virtual Private Network

32. 32
Instructions for
setting up the VPN
are here.

33. Bibliography

34. How to find…
Obama, Barack.
The Audacity of Hope.
New York : Crown Publishers, 2006.
Look for the title of the
book in the catalogue

35. 35

36. How to find…
Malloy, Jonathan. “Bush/Harper? Canadian
American Evangelical Politics Compared.”
American Review of Canadian Studies
34, no. 4 (2009): 352-363.

37. All articles are NOT listed
directly in the library catalogue!

38. How to find…
Malloy, Jonathan. “Bush/Harper? Canadian
American Evangelical Politics Compared.”
American Review of Canadian Studies
34, no. 4 (2009): 352-363.
Look for the title of the
journal in the catalogue

39. 39

40. 40
Click to find the article on
the journal’s website

41. Academic integrity at McGill
“McGill University values academic integrity.
Therefore all students must understand the
meaning and consequences of cheating,
plagiarism and other academic offences
under the Code of Student Conduct and
Disciplinary Procedures.”

42. Plagiarism = stealing

43. Citation woes?

45. Why cite?
Credit Identify
Replicate Defend

47. Tips for paraphrasing
1. Start early!
2. Take notes as you read. Put the original aside
when you write
3. Check the original again for accuracy
4. Quote unique phrases and terminology
5. Record your sources

48. Original passage
 Students frequently overuse direct quotation in
taking notes, and as a result they overuse
quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably
only about 10% of your final manuscript should
appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you
should strive to limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials while taking
notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers.
2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

49. Paraphrase example
 In research papers students often quote
excessively, failing to keep quoted material down
to a desirable level. Since the problem usually
originates during note taking, it is essential to
minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester
46-47).
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

50. Plagiarism example
 Students often use too many direct quotations
when they take notes, resulting in too many of
them in the final research paper. In fact, probably
only about 10% of the final copy should consist
of directly quoted material. So it is important to
limit the amount of source material copied while
taking notes.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/

51. Credit where it’s due
Copyright ©1995-2009 by The Writing Lab & The
OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published,
reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed without permission. Use of this site
constitutes acceptance of our terms and
conditions of fair use.

52. Where do you find articles?

53. Research process
1. Select a research tool
2. Find out what has been
published
3. Find the text of the item

54. Evaluate!

55. Course
guide
Library
materials
VPN help

56. Ask Us!

57. What are your questions?
Megan Fitzgibbons
Liaison Librarian
megan.fitzgibbons@mcgill.ca
514-398-4696

58. Image Credits
 Slide 1: Juggling by timailius http://www.flickr.com/photos/9914541@N05/2832728718/. License: Attribution-
Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
 Slide 2: Cookies by Mrs Magic http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsmagic/1117398599/ License: Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
 Slide 7: Information timeline. Created by Anna Stewart, Librarian, St. Edward’s University. Retrieved September
21, 2009 from: http://libr.stedwards.edu/about_library/depts/instruction/instr_class_docs.htm. Used with
permission.
 Slide 18: Life ring by mag3737 http://www.flickr.com/photos/50318388@N00/2071089166 / License: Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
 Slide 18: Ronald Reagan by limeydog. License: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/71378407@N00/2631203990 /
 Slide 21: Yellow-Pages by metrostation. License: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28803949@N00/30441950/
 Slide 50: Thief by desiretofire : music is the shape of silence http://www.flickr.com/photos/desiretofire/151851052
 Slide 52: Citation flowchart: Gaunt, Jessica, Nigel Morgan, Rowland Somers, Rosemary Soper, and Erica Swain.
Handbook for Information Literacy Teaching. Cardiff, Wales: Cardiff University, 2007.
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/educationandtraining/infolit/hilt/index.html (accessed May 14, 2008).
 Slide 54: Standing upon the shoulders of giants by mushon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74121966@N00/282287572/. Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic