Directions for Scholarly Article Response

For the purpose of researching your I Search Paper, you will read scholarly articles that you find using the databases on the St. John's University library website. No other kind of article will be accepted. 

1. Go to the SJU library website. There are a lot of resources on this page including a place where you can ask a librarian questions or sign up to attend a workshop related to research. Click here to get to the library website. 
2. Click on "Databases A-Z."
3. There are a lot of databases here. Some might be great resources for learning about your major. ProQuest and EBSCO are probably two good starting places that have a lot of information. Lok for ProQuest Direct down the left side of the page. Click on that. 
4. If you are off campus, you will have to log in. For me, it's everything before the @ sign in my email: torgersw   And then the password is the same one I use for my email. 
5. Click on advanced search. 
6. Before you start plugging in search terms, be sure to check the "full text" box and the "peer reviewed" box. A popular source is usually just reviewed by an editor and is printed in a publication that has lots of ads in it, something like a newspaper or New York Magazine. A peer reviewed source has been reviewed by a panel of experts who have voted to publish or not publish an article. The journals usually have little to no advertisements. I wouldn't say one is better than the other. Most of you have lots of experience with popular sources and probably less experience with peer reviewed journals. So hopefully reading these articles will be something new for you. 
7. I have heard students say they are good Googlers and I certainly agree with the idea that using search terms to find relevant articles is a skill that can be practiced and improved upon. Using the advanced search, you have more than one blank you can use. For example, if I am writing about using Twitter in the writing classroom, I am more likely to get better results using "Twitter" and "classroom" than I just do with one or the other. Also, when you begin to start reading results, you might see new search words that will be better than what you have been using. 
8. Being a good researcher often takes perseverance. Don't give up after just trying a couple of searches. Keep trying terms, reading, coming up with new terms and doing that process again and again until you start to find what you want. 
9. As you look at your results, look for the phrase "Full text PDF." Those will be files that you can click on, download, and save to your computer. The text will look the same as if you were holding the publication in your hand. 
10. Decide on a text that you want to read. Students in the online classes are going to do three different schularly reading responses. Students in the hybrid classes are going to bring in annotated articles that they print out and write on. Hybrid students can stop reading directions here and begin to look for the three articles they are going to bring to class. 
11. You will be doing a total of three article responses over three class sessions. Put these in the assignments section of your ePortfolio. Call the first one Scholarly Article Response #1. 
12. The MLA citation should be at the top of your post. I like to use the website "Son of Citation" to do my citations. Be sure to click on MLA format. Click on Manual Entry and then use your source to fill in all of the blanks on the Son of Citation website. When you finish, you should just have to copy and paste the citation into the module on your ePort. Click here for the right starting spot on the citation website. 
13. Open your post by reminding us the topic and research question of your I Search Paper. Explain what you hoped to learn from choosing this article. 
14. Summarize what you learned from reading the article. 
15. Choose lines that got your attention. Quote them in your response. Then connect the quote to your paper and tell us what you think about that quote. Keep quoting and reacting until you get to at least 400 words. 
16. Finish your post by explaining what you are thinking now when it comes to search. Do you have new questions? Do you have new things you want to read about? 

Extra resources:

• In this video, I find articles using the SJU databases.
• About halfway through this video, I explain how to use the Son of Citation website.