Welcome to your COM 101 Research Guide!

This guide contains links to useful resources to help you complete research assignments in this course. Use the navigation tabs on the left to get started.

Please contact me if you have any questions or if you need research assistance.

You can make an appointment with me using Ask Your Personal Librarian (from the library's homepage). Or, use the Schedule Appointment button to the left (on the Home tab of this guide). We can meet in person in my office (RT 110C) at the Michael Schwartz Library or virtually over Zoom.

Good Luck!

Diane Kolosionek

*Please note that these instructions are from Dr. B's face-to-face class, Fall 2025 semester. If you are taking COM 101 with another professor, the instructions may be different. Please follow YOUR PROFESSOR'S DIRECTIONS for the Annotated Bibliography Assignment for how many and what types of sources are required!

For the Annotated Bibliography assignment, you will select a communication topic and provide summary information about that topic from four sources: course textbook, academic journal article, encyclopedia entry, and popular media source. You will compare all four sources.

*You must properly cite each source according to APA or MLA format. Choose one citation style for your assignment and stick with it throughout. Be consistent! Don't mix and match citation styles.

See the boxes below with tips on finding the required sources.

The Michael Schwartz Library has a print/paper copy of the current edition of the textbook. It is located in the Textbook Center at the Library Help Desk, which is the service desk on the Library's 1st floor in Rhodes Tower.

Introduction to Human Communication: Perception, Meaning, and Identity, 3rd ed. (2025)

You can borrow the textbook for 2 hours, in-library use only.

Provide a definition or explanation of your topic or concept from the textbook.

**Please watch this video if you need help finding an academic journal article! It explains how to use the database named Communication & Mass Media Complete to locate a research study published in a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal.

Find an ACADEMIC ARTICLE related to the communication concept, meaning a RESEARCH STUDY published in an academic journal (also known as a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal).

Start with the Research Database named Communication and Mass Media Complete. If you cannot find a good article in that database, then search in other databases like Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, or Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. See the Research Databases A-Z list for more options.

You can access the database from the links provided here. Or, from the Michael Schwartz Library's homepage, go to Research Databases A-Z, then look under "C" for Communication and Mass Media Complete.

To access the database remotely, log in with your CampusNet ID and Password.

Enter your search terms into the separate search boxes, connecting them with the Boolean operator AND. The examples I demonstrated in class were:

(1) Politeness theory; (2) Interpersonal conflict AND romantic relationships; (3) Interpersonal conflict AND (romantic OR dating OR marriage OR couples OR spouse)

Apply filters to limits your results. Limit to EBSCO Full Text. Limit to Peer Reviewed and/or Academic Journals (under Source Type). Limit by Publication Date.

Review the results. Research studies are published in academic journals, but not every article in an academic journal will be a research study.

Your academic journal article should be published in a scholarly, peer reviewed journal. It should be a RESEARCH STUDY. Avoid literature reviews or theoretical articles.

Open the article. Read the Abstract, which is a short summary of the article. Scroll through the article and review the different parts, sections, and headings.

A research study will have a METHODS, METHODOLOGY, or RESEARCH DESIGN section that describes participants and how they were selected, as well as how data for the study were collected.

Many of the articles will be available full text in the EBSCO databases. Select "Access Options" or "Access now (PDF)" to view the full text of an article. You can Download/Save and Share/Email articles from the database as well.

Make sure to properly CITE your academic articles using APA or MLA style! You can get citing help inside the database, but it is ONLY a starting point. There will be mistakes or information missing from the citation generated by the database. Spot the errors and make the appropriate corrections. Refer to the Purdue OWL for RULES and examples.

For my communication concept, I found a relevant entry from the online Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication.

I searched on "politeness theory" and selected this entry on Language and Culture which includes a discussion of the concept.

I also searched on interpersonal conflict. I reviewed the results list and selected this entry on Relationship Conflict and Communication.

Find an article, blog post, or opinion piece from a reputable news or media outlet.

Use Google, Yahoo News, or another search engine to locate your popular media source.

Search the website/platform of a specific news, magazine, or media outlet. For example, go to The Washington Post and search for articles.

Or, use the News sources described in the boxes below.

Unfortunately, the Michael Schwartz Library does not have full-text access to The Plain Dealer.

Use cleveland.com or, if you have a public library card from Cleveland Public Library or Cuyahoga County Public Library, you can access the full text of articles from The Plain Dealer using their newspaper databases.

Magazines & Newspapers from Cuyahoga County Public Library

Cleveland Public Library - Newspapers