WR 122 - Trabold: Home
Sources useful for local Oregon issues arguments
Check out the Portland Metro and Oregon Research Guide
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Check the Portland Metro and Oregon Research Guide, designed to help students doing local research projects about local issues by providing resources related to metro Portland and Oregon. Here's what you'll find in it:
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Nonprofits: people working to solve problems
Questions to Ask About Your Sources
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Evaluating Sources HandoutHere is a convenient printable handout to help remind you of the three simple questions you can ask of your sources.
- Is this article relevant? What is the author writing about and how does that relate to what you're researching?
- Who are the authors and what are their qualifications? Are their qualifications good enough for the weight you are placing on their conclusions? When in doubt, Google the author(s).
- Who published this? What is their purpose? To inform? To promote a particular viewpoint? To sell something? Do you feel like you can trust them? (when in doubt, Google the publication or look for an "About" page on their website)
- Can you tell where the author got their information from? Their own experience? Interviewing people? A research experiment? Other experts? Do they provide references or some clue about their own sources?
- Is this source useful? If so, how might this source be used? If it's not something you'd cite, might it have any usefulness?
Library Resources that Might be Useful
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Advanced Search in Googleall =
Include all relevant words
exact word or phrase =
letter-by-letter and space-by-space match
any of these words =
Use for terms to describe the type of sources you need. For example: article, statistical chart, statistics, report, technical paper, whitepaper, conference presentation, journal, magazine, newspaper, news
file type =
.pdf (for example)
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Google ScholarGoogle Scholar searches the web for scholarly articles, reports, books, and other materials. If using Google Scholar from a PCC campus, you can access full text articles. If PCC has access to an article, a "Find it @ PCC" link will appear to the right of the search result. Click “Find it @ PCC” to go to the library catalog where you will be offered a choice to view the article. From home, you will need to set your Google Scholar preferences to access PCC Library resources. See How to Search PCC Library on Google Scholar for directions on how to set your Google Scholar preferences at home.
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Academic Search PremierFull text for more than 4,500 scholarly social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multi-cultural journals. 3,700 are peer-reviewed.
Your Librarian
Problem-Solution Questions
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Research questionsThis sheet includes some of the questions you might answer as you research a problem and propose a solution.