ENGL 2880: Making the News: The Politics of the Media  Tags: media news information_literacy research_strategies linguistics_language_literature  

Use Reference databases to identify and access encyclopedias and other sources to find background information on your research topics.

In the Library Catalog combine keywords like "encyclopedia" or "dictionary" or "handbook" or "guidebook" or "introduction" with other keywords related to your topic.

Look for bibliographies and cross-references at the end of encyclopedia articles.

Use words and phrases that you find in your encyclopedias as keywords in new searches in the Library Catalog, Google, or other subject databases.

You have all used Wikipedia.  It can be a good starting place for your research, but dare to explore further....

There are thousands of both general and specialized subject encyclopedias--digital and print. 

If you need information on a topic that you are not familiar with, try starting with an encyclopedia article to learn essential facts, figures, and background on your subject.

Use these Reference databases to find and access articles in a variety of encyclopedias and subject dictionaries:

A database of full text reference encylopedias and dictionaries for the Arts, Business, History, Law, Medicine, Religion, and Social Sciences.

Oxford Reference Online

This databases contains over 100 language and subject dictionaries and reference works of Oxford University Press. Covers general reference, language, science and medicine, humanities and social sciences, business and professional subjects.

A searchable database of back-of-the-book indexes to subject encyclopedias and other reference works in a wide variety of subject areas. Search the contents of more than 4,500 reference titles.

A searchable collection containing 100 reference sources including subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources and quotations. Contains over 150,000 entries of facts, words, concepts, and people.

Use Google for quick checks on spelling and definitions.

(e.g. define sestina or def sestina)

For more detailed analysis, use the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).