ENG102 Research Assignment – Odyssey IV: Scholarly Journal Search

We do this assignment in Week 9, and prior to doing the assignments students are instructed to view the following lessons:

• Documenting Sources Using APA Format (Presentation) – An interactive presentation with audio. Copyright 2006 by the Academic Center and the University of Houston-Victoria
• APA 6th Edition Running Head video

Assignment #8 – Odyssey IV: Scholarly Journal Search

Instructional Objectives

In this assignment students will:

1. refine strategies for understanding and evaluating sources.
2. refine strategies for searching online database systems for scholarly articles, and
3. practice note taking skills by writing paraphrases, summaries and quoting sources

Searching Scholarly Journals

I. Go to the GCC library website: http://lib.gccaz.edu/lmc/ or click the Library Resources tab on the left. From the GCC Library Homepage, click on the Articles & Databases link in the left column or at the top in blue. Choose the Academic Search Premier database from the General list. This scholarly collection offers journal, magazine, and newspaper articles in nearly every area of academic study including: computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies, etc. as well as 180,000 searchable images.

If you are accessing the GCC library from off campus, you will need to log in with your MEID and password. There is help on the login page if you need it, and you can always click the link to

Once you’re in, Click on Advanced Search.

A. Below the search box, in the Search Options, you will see a section to limit your results. On the right side, Check the box to limit the results to: Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals. This will get you scholarly journals.

B. Enter one or more of the subject key words you have. This should get you a huge number of citations. Narrow that number by combining the first search with one or more of the topic words you have on your list. You can also use the key words and argument words you wrote down. Play around with these in combinations. When you have a reasonable number of citations, look them over. If you find new key words or topics of interest or arguments, fine, follow your interest to where it leads you.

II. Locate 3 citations. Examine the citations you found. Determine that they are indeed scholarly journals. If you find a good scholarly journal, go back to the search screen. Search the journal name. Search in the journal for citations by using the words you have found useful in your search so far. This will help you find more journal articles.

III. SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING TO ME:

A. Add the citations (APA Style): bibliography information for the three journal articles (3) to your new APA Style Bibme project, and then paste a copy of the three citations in this assignment. (Do not hand in the full text of the three articles)

B. Locate the full text of one of your three articles. Save the full text article; read it, and locate two small sections worth quoting. Quote no more than 3 sentences (1-3 sentences) of the article. Cut & Paste the original sections that you are quoting into the assignment. Be sure to put quotation marks around this text and cite the source by including author, year, page number (if applicable) by writing the name in text and putting year and page number in parenthesis.

C. Additionally, write why the one full text article has interest for you and how it might contribute to your argumentative essay. Be specific. Also discuss the advantages of this being a “scholarly journal.” As always, no fill in the blank, “It is interesting/ useful/informative.” Explain why this is a good source.

D. Paste a complete (APA Style) working bibliography into this assignment. Add your three scholarly journal sources (citations) to your existing working bibliography in Bibme, but you will need to convert your project in Bibme to the APA style first. You need to use the APA Style for the last few assignments and papers. To create a full working bibliography in the new APA style, you will need to change your sources from Assn. #3-6 over to APA format in Bibme. You should now have a total of 16-17 sources: 3 scholarly journals, 1-2 primary sources, 4 periodicals, 6 books, 2 web pages.

 Example Assignment

• ENG102 A8 Example

Rubric