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CA 110: Public Speaking: Articles

Library resources for Public Speaking at the University of South Alabama

What is an article and where do I find them?

Articles can mean two different types of publications:

  • Newspaper or magazine articles: These articles are usually written by journalists. These articles are often written about interviews, events, phenomena... They are almost always written for a general, popular audience.
  • Journal articles: These articles are written by subject experts, like professors. These articles are often written about original or secondary research. They are almost always written for an academic audience.
    • Journal articles almost always go through the peer review process. The authors' peers (other experts) review the article for quality before the article is published. This makes journal articles more likely to include high-quality research.
    • Journal articles are found by searching databases.

Check your research assignment requirements, so you use the right kind of articles for that assignment.

Databases are collections of multiple journals and articles that can be searched all at once. Some databases are general, and some are subject-specific. Some databases include newspaper/magazine articles, but most databases only have journal articles.

How to Search a Database

Search Terms

Databases are searched using search terms. Search terms are building blocks that you can add together.

Databases usually have multiple search bars that can be used to enter separate search terms. (You might need to click on "advanced search" to see multiple search bars.)

 

Turning your Research Question into a Search

A database is searched by creating a search query. A search query is the combination of search terms, filters, and code that you type or select before clicking the search button.

  • Search terms are the words or phrases you want the search feature to look for.
    • Different databases search different parts of the text. Some databases, like JSTOR or newspaper collections, only do a full-text search. Their search features will only pull items that have those phrases in the actual text.
    • Other databases, like Academic Search complete, will search the actual text and the description of the text.
    • Many databases have multiple textboxes where you can enter multiple search terms at once. You do not need to put a term in every textbox.
  • Filters are selections built into the search feature. You can choose different filters to narrow down your results. Common filters are by publication date or by language.
  • Code includes any special terms or punctuation to add to your search. Some search features might not understand every code.
    • ? or * are commonly use to truncate your searches. This means that a search for: read* will really search for any word that starts with read. The articles you get shown might contain the words "read," "readers," or "readmit".

This is an example of a search in Academic Search Complete:

Screenshot of Academic Search Complete search function. Two terms are entered, "cooking shows" and "health behavior."

This is an example of a search in JSTOR:

Screenshot of a search query in JSTOR. The search terms are "Native American" and "Taxes."

Tricks for Choosing Search Terms

Using Your Research Question

You can turn your research question into search terms. This is a good way to make sure that you are looking for resources that relate to your paper's scope and topic. 

Identify the important words or terms in your research question. These are more likely to be the nouns that you use to specify the scope of your topic. 

Write out each important word/term as it appears in your research question. Next to the term, list synonyms. You can also search words that mean the same thing. 

You can use our digital search term worksheet to turn your research question into search terms.

Using an Article You Like

When you find an article you like, look at that article's keywords. These are the words the database attaches to the article. They are usually written underneath the article's listing in your search results. 

Different databases use different keywords. By reusing the keywords that the database likes, you are learning to speak that database's "language".

Using Search Suggestions

Some databases will give you suggestions for search terms when you start typing in a search term textbox. You can select those suggestions if you want. Of course, you can always type out your own text to search, but these suggestions are terms that the database absolutely recognizes. 

Often, the suggestions will be several terms in the same box, all separated by or. This means that the search engine will search for all those terms at once.

Always check before you select a string of terms. Some of the terms might not be equivalent for your research topic!