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COMP 1011: The College Research Essay (Christiansen) Summer 2023 1011

Librarian: Dr. Mary Lynn Bensen

Assignment: Find at least four sources for your first essay and create a correctly formatted MLA Works Cited page.

Library Worksheet

Purpose of research essay/type of writing:

Topic of research:  

Identify potentially useful information sources, including books, magazine, journal, and newspaper articles, etc., by using the library’s discovery service Milne Search.

Identify the essential keywords that represent the focus or idea of your topic.  Consider synonyms, variations of words, plurals, abbreviations that need to be spelled out, and keywords that represent broader and narrower aspects of your topic.

These keywords will serve as search terms in various combinations for finding information sources in library databases, such as Milne Search, and other research tools. 

For example, to research the mental health effects of social media on teenagers, use combinations of the following keywords to search for information sources:

Population                                         Focus                                                   Effect

Youth                                                   Social Media                                       Mental Health

Young Adult/s                                     Instagram                                           Loneliness

Teen(ager/s)                                       TikTok                                                  Anxiety

Adolescent/s                                                                                      

For your topic, create lists of keywords with which you can begin to explore Milne Search.

Using combinations of these keywords, find four information sources for your essay by using Milne Search.   Create citations for each source using proper MLA style.

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