Roughly speaking, an article is a piece of professional writing on a particular topic that has been published in a credible journal (a professional magazine). On average, an article can be anywhere from one page to several pages in length. Though, some can be much longer.
The keys are:
1) Why can’t I just grab some content from a search result in Google or Yahoo!?
As a college student, you are required to produce high-quality content worthy of college work. The vast majority of open Internet content is not credible or low-quality information. Furthermore, your professor will not accept it.
2) Why can’t I just use a book? Articles seem to be a pain.
Books are great. However, using both books and articles will really improve your content.
Books are broad and can only cover smaller topics with a chapter. For example, a book on Florida would only have a chapter or less on the City of Palm Bay. And if you searched for a book on the City of Palm Bay, the book may not exist due to a lack of audience. Remember, books are written to make money! Furthermore, a book’s content will be at least six months to a year old before it is ready to be read, so the freshest information on a topic is usually not found in a book.
Articles, on the other hand, are only a few pages and will cover smaller topics. Using the example from above, there could be many articles to cover any number of topics related to the City of Palm Bay. Furthermore, articles are published very quickly, so there is always fresh information. And with the EFSC databases, searching for articles is a breeze!
3) How do I find articles related to my topic?
The first thing is to know how to search the databases. Look below for that. Next, you have to look for content that exits: remember that another human being is going to be the author of that article you want. Is your topic something somebody would be writing about? Here’s a good example of this idea:
Search for “careers” –lots and lots of articles! Too broad…
Search for “careers in computers” – specific with plenty of articles.
Search for “careers in computers in Florida” – very specific with a few results.
Search for “careers in computers in Palm Bay, Florida” – too narrow with no results.
4) Why do I have to cite? What do I have to cite?
Being a college student and doing academic work, citations are required when you use outside resources to help you with your work. There are very specific guidelines for how to cite. Look for the citations tab on this guide for assistance.
Searching for content:
Think of each database as a big file cabinet filled with millions of articles from countless journals. Each database is very different from the next:
1) Select a subject from the database options. You can select “General,” if you prefer.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) is a good one (within “General” subject) to start out, if you are doing a broad subject, such as “TV violence”.
2) You are searching for keywords that appear in the title or the content of the articles.
Tips:
Use only nouns, verbs and terms that would relate to your topic.
Combine the terms to get better results with “AND”, “OR”, and “NOT”
For example: “violence” is too broad and produces over 50,000 results –too many
“violence AND tv” is a better search with over 600 results
“violence AND tv AND cartoons” is very focused and produces twelve results
If you get zero results for a search, try to focus more on the terms you are using.
Remember, you are pulling up content from professionals in their fields writing about the subject. It is a “conversation” that you are tapping into with these searches.
