English 200: Dr. Greta Gaard  Tags: english_200  

This guide is designed to assist you in your research process for Paper #3 - the Food Debates - Omnivores & Locovores, Vegetarians & Vegans, Organic or Not?  On the following pages, you will find some tips to help you find library resources.

If you need assistance at any time, please contact Heidi via email (heidi.southworth@uwrf.edu) or phone (715-425-3924).  You can also ask for help at the Research Help Desk or by phone (715-425-3343) or email (refdesk@uwrf.edu).

A quick word of caution: DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE NIGHT BEFORE YOUR PAPER IS DUE TO FIND LIBRARY RESOURCES! If you wait until the last moment, you might find a good source that the library does not have access to. While we can still get the article for you, you may have to wait a couple of days or a week to receive a copy of it. Additionally, research means having to hunt and search and search again for good materials. You will not always find what you are looking for when you first start to search. So start your research now. This way you will have all the information you need to write an excellent paper.

So where do you start? 
To find books and other items that are located in the library and in other libraries in the UW system, click on the tab marked "Books" to do a search.  If you are looking for journal articles, click on the tab marked "Journal Articles" to start your research.

BUT what words do I use to start a search?
Sometimes, the hardest part of research is finding out what words you should use to do a search.  The library's resources search differently than Google or Yahoo, so you often have to try different words and different combinations of words.  Here are some tips to help you get started.  Additionally, as you search, pay attention to the titles of articles, the abstracts and subjects or descriptors that are found in an individual citation.  These places will often contain other words that you can use in a search. 

• Unless it is something very specific and unique, never search by just typing in a single word (such as food) - always use a combination of words.  All of our resources allow you to use more than one word in the search box, so you can type in as many words as you wish.
  
  
• Try and think of all the synonyms that can be used to describe your topic. For example, if you are looking for items on obesity in children, try using the words fat, obese, overweight with children, adolescent, or juveniles.  Sometimes a different word or a different combination of words will get you more results.  
  
  
• You can also try using singular and plural forms of the words - for example, "feedlot" and "feetlots" or "vegan" and "vegans." 
  
  
• If you get poor search results, try using different words in your search and/or remove some of the words. Sometimes, you can get so specific in a search that it only retrieves one or two articles.