English 102 Anthony Koranda Winter 2024: Home

Janet Harper

Contact: jharper57@ccc.edu

Visit the Harold Washington College Library's Homepage

  Make a Research Consultation

  Reserve a Study Room

  Email the Library

  Circulation Desk: (312) 553-5760

  Reference Desk: (312) 553-5784

The Library Search Box is a great place to start your research. Search for print books, ebooks, articles, reviews, and more. You may be prompted to login with your CCC username and password. 

Browse local and national newspapers (in print or online), news programs, and websites to see what kinds of issues are currently in the news. Examples include the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tonight TV show, the New York Times, National Public Radio.

Browse the Opposing Viewpoints’ List of Topics/Issues. Opposing Viewpoints covers timely social issues, such as offshore drilling, climate change, health care, and immigration. Includes information from a variety of sources including academic journals, newspapers, magazines, reference books, radio transcripts, and government sources.

Search Strategies, Keywords and Boolean Operators

• From the research topic, pick out main keywords
• Combine the keywords with Boolean operators – AND, OR, NOT
  • AND narrows your search results
  • OR broadens your search results
  • NOT excludes unwanted criteria from your search results
• Worksheet 01 -- Create a Concept Map for Your Topic
• Worksheet 02 -- Search Strategies and Boolean Operators

For more information, see Developing and Combining Keywords

Gale eBooks 

Formerly called Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Multidisciplinary database of full text encyclopedias and reference sources for research and ready reference. Enables one search that covers all sources. Subjects include arts, sciences, medicine, and the humanities.

Funk & Wagnall’s New World Encyclopedia

A general encyclopedia with more than 250,000 full text short articles.

• Academic Search Complete : General database of academic journals in the sciences and humanities. Includes full text scholarly/peer-reviewed articles.    
• JSTOR : Provides full-text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences.
• All Databases A-Z    
• All Databases by Subject  

MLA Citation Style

• HWC Library Citation guide: MLA9
• Purdue Owl: MLA General Format
• MLA Citations by Format

Say No to Plagiarism

CRAAP 

• CURRENCY: When was it published? Is it current for the topic, or is it outdated information?
• RELEVANCY: Is this relevant for your research needs?
• AUTHORITY: Who wrote this/who is the author?  Do they have any sort of authority on the topic?
• ACCURACY: Is the information accurate, factual, and true?
• PURPOSE: What is the reason this information was published?  Is there a purpose/bias behind the publication that could skew the information?

SIFT 

• Stop
• Investigate the source
• Find better coverage
• Trace claims, quotes and media to the original

WHY 

• Who was the author?
• How was it edited?
• Why was this published?

For additional information, see Evaluating Sources: Navigating the Web