LibGuides: ENGL 3050: Writing Pedagogy: Find Articles

Databases

Databases are extremely useful search tools that enable you to search more effectively.

Multidiscipline Databases

Great for searching across multiple subjects (English AND Education, Psychology AND Spanish, etc)
Strong starting points

Academic Search Complete
A great starting place for any research topic. Includes a wealth of peer-reviewed and non-scholarly articles on a wide range of topics and disciplinary areas.
JSTOR
Peer-reviewed articles across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select ebooks and other materials.
Project Muse
Peer-reviewed articles and eBooks in the humanities and social sciences.

Library OneSearch
Easiest way to search most of the library's literature/articles holdings at once. Great for when you don't know your topic and want to get started on research and see what's out there.

English Databases

Focus primarily on literary analysis, writing pedagogy or language acquisition

Children's Literature Comprehensive Database
An academic research and teaching tool for locating Children's and Young Adult books and other media for Pre-K through 12th grade. Search for professional book reviews, thematic and award lists, and curriculum materials. A useful database for reader’s advisory and curriculum development, including lesson plans and teaching guides.
Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts
Peer-reviewed articles in linguistics and its various sub-disciplines. It also includes summaries of monographs, recent books, technical reports, and more.
MLA International Bibliography
Peer-reviewed articles in literature, language, folklore, dramatic arts (film, radio, television, theater), linguistics, the history of publishing, and teaching in all these areas.

Education Databases

Focus on pedagogy and classroom management
Primary audience is teacher practitioners

Education Full Text
Peer-reviewed and non-scholarly articles in the fields of education administration, teaching methods, literacy, funding, and more.
ERIC
The Educational Resource Information Center includes peer-reviewed articles, reports, conference papers, curriculum and teaching guides, and non-scholarly articles focused on education, including early childhood to higher education, and throughout the lifespan. Includes research on cognitive psychology.
ERIC is also available via Proquest, OCLC FirstSearch, and at ERIC website with access to full text documents from 1993-present. ERIC consists of two files:
- CIJE - Current Index to Journals in Education which indexes over 750 professional journals - all are assigned ERIC numbers beginning with an EJ (Eric journal).
- RIE - Resources in Education which indexes a variety of documents; all are assigned ERIC numbers beginning with an ED (Eric document). OCLC provides access to online full-text ED records via subscription links to EDRS Not all ED documents are available online. Inclusion depends on the authors original copyright agreement with EDRS. Typically 80% of ED documents permit online full-text usage. HINT: on OCLC look for the EDRS link at the bottom of the detailed record.
A variety of help options are available:
Mas Ultra - School Edition
Designed for high school libraries. Popular general interest and current events publications covering general reference, health, science, and other areas. Includes full text articles from top high-school magazines, with lexiles (reading levels) assigned to articles. Also includes primary source documents, biographies, and over 2 million images.
Teacher Reference Center
Peer-reviewed and non-scholarly articles about teaching and education. Topics covered include assessment, curriculum development, elementary education, higher education, instructional media, literacy standards, pedagogical research, school administration, and more.

MISC Subject Databases

Library, Information Science, & Technology Abstracts
Peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, pamphlets, books, and library school theses on topics such as cataloging, censorship, electronic resources, publishing, and more.
PsycInfo
The core psychology database, with peer-reviewed and non-scholarly articles on all aspects of human psychology.

Searching a Database: Tips

There are usually five things you can do with a database:

Search using keywords
Refine results (e.g., relevance, date, peer-review, subject, full-text only, etc)
Access a source (cilck PDF or "find it" links)
Email yourself the source full-text and/or citation
Cite a source (be sure to double check citation generators!)

More search tricks:

Use Boolean Operators (and, or, not) to separate keywords
Use quotation marks (" ") to search for phrases, such as "critical reading" or "into the woods"
Use an asterisk (*) to search all variations of a word root, such as child* for child, children, and childrens
Use an exclamation mark (!) as a wildcard, such as metamorphos!s for metamophosis and metamorphoses

What is Google Scholar?

GoogleScholar searches the entire web for scholarly materials.

Downsides:

Very limited search customization and filtering.
There is no way to refine to peer-reviewed articles.
It will list things by mere popularity, including unpublished dissertations and reports.
This means you must do MORE WORK to determine what type of source you're looking at and if it's useful!

Upsides:

You can easily search for an article by title.
Google Scholar can recognize you as a Cal State LA student so you are linked to library materials (see below)

Add Cal State LA to Google Scholar

If Google Scholar knows you are a Cal State LA student, you will see "Find it @ Cal State LA" links, pictured below.

Add Cal State LA to your institutions: