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42. Research topics & Terms
References: 1. Langan, J. (2008). Exploring writing: paragraphs and essays. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. Publication Manual of the American Psychological2. Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006). Writing Academic English. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc3. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (2010). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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Perhaps you need to know the importance of the research topic:1. A research topic is the topic sentence
of the paragraph2. A topic sentence = states the main
idea of the paragraph (contains a subject & a verb) + controlling idea (that announces the specific area to be discussed)
3. The main idea or thesis statement appears in the introductory paragraph
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Defining the essay and paragraph
Essay definition according to Langan, J. (2008, p.243):•An essay, it is a paper of several paragraphs,•The main idea is called the thesis statement or thesis sentence•The thesis statement appears in the introductory paragraph.•The thesis statement is developed in the supporting paragraphs, (see next slides).
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Paragraph definition according to Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006, p.2):•A paragraph is a group of related sentences that discuss one main idea. It can be from 1 to 10 sentences, however, the paragraph should be long enough to develop the main idea clearly.•The paragraph is mark by indenting the first word 5 spaces from the left margin
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According to Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006, p.3) a paragraph contains : •A topic sentence states the main idea of the paragraph (contains a subject & a verb) + controlling idea (announces the specific area to be discussed)•A supporting sentence supports the topic sentence by developing the main idea.•The concluding sentence ends the paragraph by rounding up what was said in the paragraph.
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Having a clear idea of what do you need to do ?
• You need to start with a paragraph that contains a topic sentence (subject + verb) + controlling idea that announces the specific area to be discussed
• Your topic has to satisfy the requirements of your course, but also be an exciting topic to learn
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Start with some actions:
1. You need to focus on the assignment2. Think about the point you want to
make 3. Write your point in the first sentence,
your topic sentence4. Lets start searching for terms and
sub-terms or subjects
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For example :Terms Sub-terms1. Fairy tales2. Healthcare3. Management4. Tribes, Reservations5. Evolution6. Drug abuse7. Electronic
Resources
1. Snow White, Cinderella, 2. Hospitals, nursing homes3. Hospitals, healthcare4. California, Missions5. Species, man, mammals6. Teens, adolescents 7. Journals, books, images,
maps
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More examples :
1. Escherichia coli2. Hispanics3. Endocrine4. Nutrition5. United States6. Mohawk Indian7. Policy & politics8. Beauty & the
beast
1. Research2. Health care3. Disorders4. Elderly5. Industrial
Revolution6. Traditions7. Healthcare8. Beaumont
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Electronic sources where you can find terms, sub-terms, keywords,
etc.1. Books related to the subject2. Articles from academic databases3. Google scholar4. Merriam-Webster dictionary5. Encyclopedia Britannica6. SynonymsNote: Select the above electronic
resources and save the link in “bookmark this page”
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Where to look ?• Books:
– Go to the last pages, look for the index or glossary, and search your terms
– Read the introduction, you may find good ideas for your topic
– Or in Google books look for the book reviews or select Free books
– From the book: Cultural competence in Health: a guide for professionals, by Wen-Shing Tseng• See the Index see example, Page 134:• Culturally competency, 12, 17, 128• Cultural empathy, 128• Culture guidance, 129
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An example from EBSCO
• Articles:– Read the abstract– Look the
keywords, subject terms
– Learn the terms definitions from internet-look for academic sources like Merriam-Webster Dictionary
• From: Effect of protein intake on bone and muscle mass in elderly:
• Subject terms• Muscular atrophy• Prevention• Bones-metabolism• Osteoporosis• Amino acids• Nutrition-
requirements
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• EBSCO is the provider of most of US UNIVERSITY Online Full text databases
• EBSCO databases have subject terms indexes
• EBSCO Multidisciplinary “Academic Search Premier ” is one of the main databases
• Next, we will learn how to access terms and keywords
Databases
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First we need to access the USU DATABASES 1. Go to http://www.usuniversity.edu
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2. Click on Student Services from the USU Home page.
Click
Scroll down & look for
the database or source
By scrolling down you will
find more databases & important
links. Take a moment to open all the links, they cover local,
regional, national and
global information. Some links will ask you
for ID & passwords, others are
open access or free. Now
click in Academic
Search Premier Full
Text (EBSCO)
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3. For User ID and password, send an email to Librarian, from your US University e-mail.
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Let’s search for terms in Academic Search Premier
• Click in “subject terms” and start searching for words- nouns-keywords. For example, for Electronic Resources (information resources) use “Electronic information resource ”,
• Think what term, subject or noun you would like to search
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The presentation is similar when searching EBSCO databases: Medline, Eric, PsycArticles, Cochrane, Cinahl,
Business Source Elite & Academic Search Premier
See where I wrote the term or subject to be search,
please write your term. Now click the Browse button and
see the results listed
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• I clicked in “Electronic information resources searching”, to see all the sub terms. Then I clicked in the same term above and retrieved a list of terms: broader, narrower, related and used for. Perhaps you will have to go through the list and select the term or nouns more close to your research topic
• From the list select more specific terms
Click in the subject term of your interest
1. If you were interested in searching, you select as many terms as you need2. Change OR for AND,
then click Add
Once the terms appeared, click
“search”
For example, I clicked: “Federated searching”, AND
“Search engines” AND “Electronic information
resources”
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From the above list of terms, you can select your topic of research ;– Information retrieval– Assisted searching– Boolean searching– Federated searching– Information- seeking strategies– Internet searching– Keyword searching– Search engines– Electronic information resources– Online databases
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Remember, you need to combine terms (the topic of your sentence) with other terms (controlling idea)
1. Think of the terms from the list as the “topic of your sentence”
2. And the new terms that announces the specific area to be discussed as the “controlling idea”
3. Let’s combine the terms in the next slide
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– Information retrieval– Assisted searching– Boolean searching– Federated searching– Information- seeking
strategies– Internet searching– Keyword searching– Search engines– Electronic information
resources– Online databases
– Electronic resources– Academic libraries– Databases– Information retrieval– Internet searching
– Federated searching– Information retrieval– Educational technology– Literacy– User
Terms from previous slide (blue background) and new terms in white
background:
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Terms examples to give you ideas:
1. Electronic Resources
2. Fairy tales3. Healthcare4. Management5. Informatics 6. Evolution7. Drug abuse
1. Information retrieval
2. Snow White3. Quality services4. Human
resources5. Patient records6. DNA7. Pregnancy
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Are you ready to define your terms or subject for your research topic?
1. By searching “subject terms” you are learning the database vocabulary
2. You can also search the database, see the titles from the result list and click in the title to read the abstract
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Examples:
• Perhaps you want to learn more about a specific topic and see the availability of academic full text literature
• Select as many terms as you need or select only one, for example “federated searching” and see the results
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Do you remember
how to ask for APA , MLA citation ?
Read the abstract, it will help you
selecting your research topic
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Let us know if you need
assistance Catalina Lopez
clopez@usuniversity or (619) 477 6310 Ext
2017THANKS