Skip to Main Content
university logo

University Library

ENGL 3050: Writing Pedagogy

The purpose of this course guide is to provide research and library resources for ENGL 3050.

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

English Databases

  • Focus primarily on literary analysis, writing pedagogy or language acquisition

Education Databases

  • Focus on pedagogy and classroom management
  • Primary audience is teacher practitioners

MISC Subject Databases

Searching a Database: Tips

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

  1. Search using keywords
  2. Refine results (e.g., relevance, date, peer-review, subject, full-text only, etc)
  3. Access a source (cilck PDF or "find it" links)
  4. Email yourself the source full-text and/or citation
  5. 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  • It will list things by mere popularity, including unpublished dissertations and reports.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:

John F. Kennedy Memorial Library
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032-8300
323-343-3988