English 102 Research Project

Assignment synopsis
Basically, your task is to research what was happening in the world during the week you were born.

First, you will read five articles from the first issue of Time or Newsweek published after your were born. If the magazine was not published on your birthday itself, you will use the first issue published after your date of birth.  For instance, if you were born on July 12, 1982, the date of publication of the issue of Time or Newsweek might be any day between July 12, 1982 and July 18, 1982.

Then you will do research on the subjects of those five articles in Time or Newsweek using five different search vehicles or databases to locate five secondary articles or sources meeting the requirements for different types of sources specified below (namely, one book, one hard-copy newspaper article, one hard-copy journal article, one electronic journal article, and one source from the World Wide Web.).

Lastly you will write up brief summaries or annotations of the five secondary sources you found through the research process.  That is, you will write brief summaries not of the five articles from Time or Newsweek, but of the different secondary sources you find in researching the topics from the original five Time or Newsweek articles.  For each of the secondary sources you locate, you must 1) document your steps in the research process by printing out all pertinent screens in each database or search vehicle you use, 2) give complete and correct bibliographic information for each secondary source (see QD5 or chapter 56b in the Bedford Handbook, and 3) write a summary of at least 100 words relating the gist of the source item.

So long as you follow instructions carefully, this assignment should be an easy "A."  But since there are strict and specific requirements you must satisfy in the types of sources used and in your documentation of the research process, your success depends mostly on how carefully you follow instructions and requirements.  If you're uncertain about any part of this assignment, do let me know.

Specifics
Step One: In the Citadel's Daniel Library locate the first issue of Time or Newsweek published after your date of birth.  As a requirement, you must locate this magazine in the Citadel's collection of microfilm. (Microfilm materials are kept in drawers located on the left-hand side of main floor of the library, to the left of the catalogue computer terminals, and beyond the glass-walled office you can see from circulation desk.) Print (or photocopy) the cover of the magazine.

Step Two: Scan through the table of contents and the magazine itself, and select, read, and print the cover story and the four most interesting additional articles in your issue of Time or Newsweek from the following categories:

Photocopy or print the first page, at least, of all five articles (the cover story and four others).

Step Three: For the cover story and for the other four articles you selected, locate other sources in the Citadel library that deal with some significant topic in each article, using a different database or search vehicle for each source.

The topic you research does not have to be exactly the same central topic the Time or Newsweek article focuses on, but it should be some significant related issue.  For example, if your cover story is about a nuclear arms reduction summit between the U.S. and the USSR, you might find a source dealing with nuclear arms more generally.  Your source could examine any aspect of nuclear weapons at any time in history, not just in 1982.  You may have to be creative here: for instance, if the "Sport" article you read is about the 1982 NCAA basketball championship, and you cannot locate other articles specifically about the 1982 NCAA basketball tournament, you might instead find an article on one of the teams or athletes mentioned in the article—the University of North Carolina Tar Heels (regrettably), or Michael Jordan, perhaps.  The article you find could then be any article about Michael Jordan or the UNC basketball Tar Heels whether or not it relates to the 1982 NCAA championship.  If the item you find through the research process deals not with the obvious general subject of the Time or Newsweek article, but with some smaller aspect of the original article, photocopy the relevant page of the article and highlight or underline the subject you have chosen to research in the original Time or Newsweek article (Michael Jordan for example, or the "Ireland" portion of a "World" article).

Database requirements: You must use at least five different databases available in the Citadel library, and no database may be used more than once.  You should not, for instance, use InfoTrac to acquire more than one source.  You should access the complete list of Daniel Library's database choices via the Indexes and Databases link on the library's homepage—note that databases are listed both alphabetically on this page and also grouped by subject on Subject Guides page listed under "References" in the first column on the library's main web page.

You must use five different databases or search vehicles, and you must document the search process for all five of your secondary sources by printing both the database search information (the search results screen), and where appropriate, the Daniel Library catalog search results screen, for each source.  That is, print the database search results and print the Daniel Library catalog description (BRF of FUL) for all five secondary sources.

For one source (only one), you may use as your primary database or search vehicle the Daniel Library catalog itself, and for one source (only one) you should use a World Wide Web search engine (Google, Altavista, Yahoo, Metacrawler, etc.).

Source type requirements: Your five sources must include

1 book from The Citadel's Daniel library, or an article from a book in the Citadel library

1 article from a hard-copy journal or magazine from the Citadel library collection (either in print or on microfilm)

1 article from a hard-copy newspaper (either in print or on microfilm)

1 item from the World Wide Web—i.e. a web page

1 item from a Citadel-held electronic journal or other electronic source not available to the general public on the web (a full-text electronic journal article from InfoTrac, JSTOR, or Lexis-Nexis, e.g.)

Invalid sources: Encyclopedias (including Britannica Online), "yearbooks" of any kind, other issues of Time or Newsweek; two items acquired through the same database or other search vehicle; two sources from the same publication—two articles from the NY Times, for instance, is not acceptable.

Step Four: Photocopy or print at least the first page of each secondary source you locate via the five different databases or search vehicles (including text from the web)—i.e. the first page of the article or electronic publication.  For books, photocopy the title page and the first page of the text (or of the pertinent chapter or article).

Step Five: On separate pages, write summaries (100 words minimum per summary) relating the gist of each of your five secondary sources.  Each summary page should include bibliographic information as it would appear in an MLA-style Works Cited page at the top of the page.  Note: do not summarize the articles from Time or Newsweek; summarize only the five secondary sources you find through the research process.

---

Finished Product

When you turn in the project, include the following, in the following order:

1)  Title page
2)  Research project requirement checklist, filled out
3)  Table of contents
4)  Time or Newsweek cover (printed from microfilm)
5)  Your findings for each of the five sources, arranged as follows:
    a)  Copy of first page of Time or Newsweek article
    b)  Database or search vehicle printout(s)
    c)  Copy of first page of secondary source
    d)  Bibliographic entry and typed summary of secondary source
6)  Bibliography page (listing separately all five Time or Newsweek articles and the five sources you summarize—10 entries total)

If you are confused, don't worry.  You will have the chance to review sample completed projects in class, and as always, you may call me at home or in the office or send email with questions.