Chapter 1
Finding and Evaluating Viewpoints
In Chapter 1 of Controversies, you'll learn strategies for researching your chosen controversy. These are skills and techniques which you will use throughout the course, and your instructor will discuss them with you in class.
Search Engines
You've probably used search engines before, but in RHE 306 you'll learn to get the most out of them.
Google's Advanced Search lets you fine-tune your search by author, date, co-occurring terms and more.
Google Scholar is focused on academic sources. If you access it through the university library, you'll have immediate access to the sources you find.
Databases
Academic databases are collections of journals based around a common theme or discipline, or owned by the same publisher. Different databases are good for different things. In RHE 306, we'll focus on the following databases (all of these links will require you to log in with your university EID):
- LexisNexis contains newspaper and magazine articles from around the world. You can find tips for using LexisNexis on the library website.
- Academic Search Complete indexes academic journals in addition to popular periodicals.
- Opposing Viewpoints is a curated selection of articles around various different controversies.
You can also access each of these databases (and many more, like those listed on #PAGEX of Controversies) from the library's database page.
Other library resources
The librarians maintain a research guide for RHE 306 students with tutorials, guides and other research resources.
You can search for books, magazines, newspapers and journals through the library catalog.
ScoUT lets you search for specific articles as well as larger publications; this is the default search box on the main library page.