ENGL 127 Research Writing: Social Sciences (Beals)

The Rogerian Argument: This guide is for students in Emily Beals' English 127

One Search for an Overview

Holman Library One Search

What should you type in? Simple key words that capture what you want to learn about.

For example, if I type in college OR "higher education" OR university AND "first generation students" (as in image below)

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education AND first gen students

I get over 19,000 results on a range of topics, including:

  • the impact of social class
  • faculty roles, mentorship
  • attrition and retention
  • aspirations
  • engagement
  • underperformance
  • identify
  • Black first-generation students
  • understanding faculty expectations
  • parents
  • friendship with other students
  • academic citizenship
  • and much more. 

I cannot address all these dimensions in my paper, but I can choose specific aspects of my broad topic to focus on.

Don't forget to use the limiters on the left of the search results. There you can limit to only what is accessible online (rather than in-print inside the library), as well as limit by source type, year, and much more. See the image below for an example of the options to limit.

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One Search Results: Image points to number of sources returned in search; icons to see citations, email, save, and more; limiters by source type, viewing online, and peer review.

Why One Search?

Holman Library One Search

The library's One Search searches for resources in all of our databases at once. 

This can be a helpful way to get a sense of the scope of issues on a topic, and that, in turn, can help you find a focus for your research.