LibGuides: Composition I Research Guide for ENGL 101: Home

Using this Guide

This guide was created to help you with your research. Use the tab(s) at the top of the page to guide you..

Do not pull your hair out searching for sources!

Students have spent hours and hours endlessly searching, getting frustrated and wasting time. As a result, they also hate research.

Ask a Librarian!

Image source: Pulling your hair out. 361image.com

Library Website and Off-Campus Access

USC Upstate Library Home
This is the Library's homepage that lists and links to all of our resources.

USC Upstate Library Off-Campus Access
Instructions on accessing library databases and electronic resources when off-campus.

Information Literacy

What is Information Literacy?
This 4 minute video from Credo Reference puts information literacy in daily life, work, and academic contexts and introduces the five information literacy standards.

In Composition I you learned . . .

Search strategies such as Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT) and exact phrase in quotes.
Differences between the scope and content of Google and library resources.
What you search when you put your keywords into the library databases (records of items) as opposed to the Web (full-text).
When the Internet might or might not be an effective search tool.
Using synonyms to find other articles.
Searching for full-text articles in an article database.
Gained familiarity with at least one of the following databases: Academic Search Complete or Academic OneFile.

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

Finding perspectives from a particular discipline.
Using subject headings as a key to understanding terminology used in disciplines.
Better distinguishing scholarly vs. popular sources and understanding how to find scholarly articles.

You may be asked to complete the Library Virtual Tour by your Composition instructor. If you have already completed the assignment for University 101, print and present the confirmation you receive by email to prove that you have done the tour.

Link to Library Virtual Tour

The Library Virtual Tour is a required activity in University 101, but serves as a good introduction to the library and its services. It consists of text, video, quiz questions about each segment, and an interactive activity.

You can expand to full screen to better view the tour. An Accessibility View is available and can be selected at the top of the tour screen, from the menu under the three dots.
Near the end of the tour is a link to a quiz. Make sure you provide your e-mail address so that your quiz score will be sent to you.
Return to the tour after the quiz to get instructions for the "Imagine the Future Library" activity.

Plagiarism Prevention Module
This Module was created by USC Upstate Librarians to help students learn about plagiarism and how to avoid it. We encourage faculty to assign the module to students near the beginning of the semester.