To access any database in this Research Guide from off campus, you will need your myMCC login. If you need to reset your password, go to the myMCC login page and click on Password Reset/Find Username.
Questions? To contact an MCC Librarian, click on
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A library database like Opposing Viewpoints is a great place to start. Their Browse Issues feature lists hundred of topics to explore. For each topic, you'll find a summary, as well as a list of numerous sources in various formats.
Start by reading the summary to gather keywords that look interesting to you.
I chose Food Safety. These are just a few of the keywords I found:
From my pre-research I was able to formulate a research question, which is the first step of the research process:
How do pesticides affect food safety?
Go to our Padlet to brainstorm some keywords specific to this research question. We'll use these keywords later to search library databases.
(Right-click to open the Padlet in a new tab so you can easily return to our research guide.)
Format
How the information is presented, or the method used to convey the information
Examples: a book, newspaper/news media, magazines, scholarly journals
Source
The specific content or the information itself
Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed source
Article written by a subject matter expert and reviewed by other experts on the same subject, then published in a scholarly journal
Popular source
Information that has not gone through the peer-review process, like a newspaper article. Most of what we read everyday is considered a popular source.
Joshua Vossler's video "Selecting and Using Keywords"
Research Tip: If you were researching the topic "videogame violence" as discussed in the video above, you could also use a great and reliable site such as this: https://www.statista.com/topics/868/video-games/ (Video Game Industry: Statistics & Facts | Statista)
Information Literacy is one of MCC's four general education goals. Information Literacy is the ability to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate and use information effectively. In this session, you will learn how to:
These skills will help you find quality, appropriate resources for your research assignments.