NOTE: THIS IS A SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT FROM A PREVIOUS SEMESTER! FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!!
Here are some research tips for Critical Thinking Essay #1: Don't Drink the Water and Don't Breathe the Air! Environmental Pollution and Public Health in 21st Century Megacities of Asia.
Read the assignment instructions. You must use evidence from the following sources:
- Slone text
- At least one scholarly article for each of two 21st century Asian megacities to compare and contrast efforts to confront and combat environmental pollution while addressing related urban health issues.
Before you start searching for your sources, identify keywords. Think of synonyms and related terms, such as air pollution, environmental pollution, water pollution, health, public health, urban health.
You will search on different keywords and combinations of terms to find information. Remember, your goal is to find credible and RELEVANT sources to cite as evidence in your assignment. For example:
| Beijing |
Shanghai |
|
| AND |
AND |
|
| Air pollution |
Pollution |
|
| AND |
AND |
|
| Public health |
Health |
|
To search library resources from home or off-campus, you will need a Library PIN. If you don’t have a Library PIN yet, then you can create one on the My Account page.
Use the Purdue OWL website for help with citing your sources in APA Citation Style. For more tips, view the APA Citations Tab of this Research Guide.
As you research, pay attention to the Publication Date of your sources!
Articles
- Use the library's Research Databases to find peer-reviewed, scholarly articles. Start with the databases named Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, and Environment Complete. Other databases, like Electronic Journal Center, may also be helpful.
- Use OneSearch to find articles. Limit results to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.
- See the Articles/Research Databases Tab on this Research Guide for more information.
Academic Search Complete / Business Source Complete / Environment Complete
- When you access the database, you will see the Advanced Search screen. Enter your main keywords into the separate search boxes and connect them with the operator AND. To conduct a keyword search, leave the boxes as Select a Field (optional).
- Under the Limit your results section of the database, turn the checkmark ON next to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals. In the peer review process, an article is assessed by experts in the same subject area before being accepted by the journal for publication. You may want to limit your results by Published Date to retrieve current articles. Then select the Search button to generate a list of results.
- Many articles will be available full text inside the database, either in HTML or PDF format. You can read, print, email, or save the articles. Also use the Find It! and/or Full Text Finder links inside the database to connect to the full text of articles.
