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Finding Secondary Sources

  

Secondary sources are required—they are essential—to most research projects. When you are conducting research for a subject you are writing about, it is imperative to find and read what other researchers and writers have studied and written about that same subject. Reviewing such secondary sources will affect your own thinking about and approach to that subject—you’ll learn from them (see summary and responding in Chapter 3). Furthermore, when you write up your research project, you’ll need to demonstrate and cite that you have carefully reviewed and considered these secondary sources, which is what John Swales calls establishing the “territory” or topic for your research (discussed in Chapter 2).

Your instructors will direct you to where to find the kinds of secondary sources you’ll need for any given writing assignment that requires research. Thanks to the internet, you will probably be able to access those sources online even from home. Yet, to find secondary sources your instructors will probably direct you to use your college online library resources rather than public internet search engines. “Library research?” you may be thinking. “Why can’t I just use Google?” As you may know, free internet search engines like Google are commercial, and they are not academic. Did you know that web sites pay to be listed at the top of search results? That’s why when you type in some symptoms you’re experiencing, for example, the same web sites keep appearing at the top of the list. In the thousands of results for each search, a corporation is deciding what information takes priority and not you. Free is never really free, is it?

Maybe you get this—that Google isn’t going to provide you with the secondary sources you need for your college writing assignments—but you wonder why you can’t just go to your local public library. Maybe it’s more convenient for you. Your public library won’t be able to give you access to the academic sources that you need for your college work. For example, your college library subscribes to a number of research databases that are quite expensive. You have to be part of the college community to access them. These sources are academic and college-level, and they are not available for free through Google or local public libraries. The databases are your tuition dollars at work providing you access to more information and resources. And the better the sources you use, the better your writing will be. Additionally, you don’t have to be as concerned about the issue of credibility when using sources found through library research.

Using College Library Resources

One of your college librarians may visit your class to orient you to the resources available to help you find secondary sources for the writing assignments you are working on. Your instructor may have specific requirements about the number and kinds of sources to use in the assignments.

For example, consider whether to use academic books (searching the college catalogue) or periodicals—articles in journalistic publications or academic journals. Compare and contrast these sources for access, length, etc. Also, consider whether or not encyclopedias have a role in your research. For example, maybe such sources will provide you background information in order to find more in-depth, analytical sources to use in your research project.

Consider which search terms to plug in to the different databases to find relevant sources. Most college library research databases are not like Google; you wouldn’t type in a sentence or question, only specific search terms. You could use synonyms for the search terms to find additional sources. You can use Boolean operators (e.g. AND, OR, NOT) to expand or limit your searches. Lastly, when you find a decent article, you can use it as a “seed article,” studying its record and its list of sources to find additional sources.

The following passage, adapted from Rhetoric and Composition (Bay College), offers specific tips for using Boolean operators in searching your college’s library research databases.

One way to refine your keyword search is to use Boolean operators. These operators allow you to combine keywords, find variations on a word, and otherwise expand or limit your results. Here are some of the ways you can use Boolean operators:

  • Combine keywords with and or + to limit results to citations that include both keywords—for example, diet + nutrition.
  • Combine keywords with not or – to search for the first word without the second. This can help you eliminate irrelevant results based on words that are similar to your search term. For example, searching for obesity not childhood locates materials on obesity but excludes materials on childhood obesity.
  • Enclose a phrase in quotation marks to search for an exact phrase, such as “morbid obesity.”
  • Use parentheses to direct the order of operations in a search string. For example, since Type II diabetes is also known as adult-onset diabetes, you could search (Type II or adult-onset) and diabetes to limit your search results to articles on this form of the disease.
  • Use a wildcard symbol such as #, ?, or $ after a word to search for variations on a term. For instance, you might type diabet# to search for information on diabetes and diabetics. The specific symbol used varies with different databases.

TRY THIS to understand searching college library research databases. Let’s say your research question is the following: To what extent are e-mail and social media replacing handwritten cards and letters? And let’s say you want to see if there are any sources discussing the role of the U.S. Post Office in literacy, letters, etc. Type in the search term “U.S. Mail” in multiple databases that your college’s library subscribes to. What kinds of results did you receive? What’s wrong with this search? What key word and subject search terms should you use? How can you limit the search?

Remember to be sure to (1) spell your search terms correctly, (2) use the appropriate form of the word, and (3) try synonyms. Remember, if you are ever having trouble with a search, contact a college librarian for help.

Visit or call your college librarians for these and other tips and tricks for finding quality sources for your research projects.