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R. Huggins/Early College : American Studies Thesis Project: Welcome

American Studies (Early College)

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What is a Research Guide?

A Research guide is a collection recommended print and digital resources for specific fields of research. 

This guide was created for  American Studies. Use the tabs across the top to navigate to your topic of research. 

How to Use this Guide:

1.  Use the Welcome page for Research tips  and reminders.

2.  Find Books and eBooks on your research topic. 

3. Locate your research topic and search recommended Find Articles and links. 

4. Navigate to the Cite Sources tab for guidance on correct usage of reference source citations. 

 

Research Reminders

Plan your research

  1. What is your topic and what do you know? _________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Summarize your thoughts in a few sentences. You could even make a t-chart: side A: this is what I know, side B: this is what I am curious about

  1. What key concepts, people, places, ideas, etc relate to your topic? (think of alternative words and synonyms)
    1. Native American vs Indian
    2. Child vs Kid vs Youth vs Adolescent vs Teen vs “young adult”
    3. Pro vs. “positive impact” vs. benefit vs advantage vs proponent Key concepts

 

Scholarly Sources

Popular Sources

Reference Material
  • Written by experts in the field: scientists, faculty, historians
  • Specific and in-depth
  • Includes academic language
  • Almost always has an abstract, research, results and conclusions
  • Includes a bibliography
  • Goes through a peer review process
  • The audience is for specialists or researches in the field
  • Design is mostly text with some tables or charts
  • Purpose is to communicate research findings
  • Written by anyone: staff, journalists, bloggers
  • Usually gives a broad overview of a topic
  • Easier to read; defines terms or phrases
  • The format will vary
  • No formal citations included
  • Edited in house by an editor or not at all
  • Audience is for the general public; shouldn’t require a special background or interest
  • Attractive design
  • Purpose is for entertainment or news.
  • Reference material is fact based background information.

  • Examples include:
  • Encyclopedias of various kinds
  • Dictionaries
  • Directories
  • Almanacs
  • Thesauri

Example: Journal of Medicine

Example: New York Times

Example: Credo; Wikipedia

 ALL of these sources can be credible; not all of these sources are scholarly.