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ENGL U102 - Composition II Research Guide: Home

Summer 2017

Welcome!

This library guide for Composition II brings together useful suggestions and resources to help you find sources for your assignments. Feel free to contact the librarian who taught your session or use our Ask a Librarian service if you have questions about anything on this guide or finding sources for your assignments!

Additional instructional material for learning information literacy skills may be found on the Library 102 guide.

Course Information Literacy Documents

Remote Access

If you are not on campus or have easy access to the USC Upstate Library, you can still use our electronic resources and even have books and articles delivered to you if you live outside of Spartanburg County. For details, see the Remote Access and Distance Learners links.

In Composition I You Learned . . .

  • Search strategies: Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT); exact phrase in quotes; truncation and nesting.
  • Differences between the scope and content of the library catalog and an article database.
  • What you search when you put your keywords into the library catalog or an article database (records of items) as opposed to the Web (full-text and metadata of web pages).
  • Where to look for certain types of information (books, videos, articles, etc.).
  • When the Internet might or might not be an effective search tool.
  • Content notes and subject heading links in the full record of a book in the library catalog that can aid in determining the usefulness of the book and in finding similar items.
  • Searching for full-text articles in an article database.
  • Gained familiarity with the library catalog and at least one of the following databases: Academic OneFile, Academic Search Premier, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, CQ Researcher.

In Composition II you will refine and build on these skills, especially:

  • Finding perspectives from a particular discipline.
  • Better distinguishing scholarly vs. popular sources and understanding how to find scholarly articles.
  • Essential elements of citations and finding articles by citation.
  • Using Journal Finder to find the full-text of articles.
  • How to borrow books and articles from other libraries through PASCAL Delivers and Interlibrary Loan.

Information Literacy