ENGL 128 Research Writing: Science, Engineering and Business (Weller)

This guide is for students in Dan Weller's English 128

Reference Databases

Finding Background Info

Use the following online reference databases to find background information on English 128 research topics.

Reviewing sources

Selecting Articles

To find useful articles from reference sources, start with broad ideas. For example, instead of searching specifically on Green River College, you could search for general info about community colleges.

As shown in the image below:

  • Current reports are well organized into section
  • To gather facts for this project, focus primarily on: The Introduction and Overview and Current Situation.
  • You may read other sections for a more complete picture of the issue.
  • You will read the Pro/Con section for opinion at step 2.
  • Be sure to check the date of your reports. Anything before 2000 will not give you accurate enough information. 

(click on image to enlarge)

CQ research result page highlighting features/sections of article

Why Reference?

Why Use Reference Sources?

Reference sources can be a great starting place for researching a topic.

Read reference for:

  • background knowledge - the who, what, when, where, why, how's of a topic
  • terminology common to that field
  • an overview of the history and context of a subject or issues
  • leads to more information
  • reliable information. Unlike Wikipedia, you can see the academic authority of the author of the articles.

A reference collection is a set of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other items that provide core factual information on a topic.