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ENGL 101 English Composition 1 (Sherman): Reference

Researching "The Society of the Spectacle" and society today.

Pop Culture, Theory, and History Reference

Many of the titles below are from Gale Virtual Reference Library. If you don't see an encyclopedia that is a good fit for your topic, try searching GVRL or CQ Researcher generally (links in the box to the right).

Use Reference to Gain Background Info.

High Tech Policing - CQ Researcher profile

Other Background Sources:

Oh no! I didn't find anything on my topic...now what?!

When you are starting your research on your paper topic, you may find a search you expected to be very relevant isn't very helpful. This happens to everyone, even professors and librarians!

For example, I might want to research on the issue of "Photoshop being used to manipulate advertising images to create unrealistic expectations of beauty in society." Here is what I saw when I searched "Photoshop" in Gale Virtual Reference Library:

A result from a scholarship guide for students that mentioned Photoshop.

Not very helpful! I have to scroll very far down the list until I see something that looks like it might be useful, on computer images and deception:

 

A result for "Deception and Technology" from the Encyclopedia of Deception

 

I'm still not very happy with how connected the result from the Encyclopedia of Deception will be on my topic, so I thought about possible connected ideas and searched "body image" and advertising on a second try. The results look much more useful!

An article on "Body Image" from the "Sage Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender."

Don't be afraid to try a few different searches! If you're having trouble coming up with related connected ideas to begin a search with and the first results aren't helping, you can also talk with a librarian for more suggestions --