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Fullerton College Library

ENG 103 Library Resource Guide / M. O'Rourke

Research Guide for Meg O'Rourke's English 103 students meeting in Fall 2021. Courtesy of the FC Library.

Basic Points to Remember

RULE #1: Database searching is nothing like Google searching. Typing sentences into the Google search engine works to get you results:

Is TikTok harmful to young people?

Does social media encourage aggressive behavior in teenagers?

Entering long sentence strings like this into Google will get you some answers. They may not be the answers you need, but you'll get answers nevertheless.

But trying this on the databases is most certainly going to yield you zero results every time and give you a poor impression of the research databases. Therefore:

1.) Identify Keywords First
Create a list of keywords associated with your topic and keep them with you throughout the research process.

a.) Write down your topic sentence / topic question:

Does social media encourage aggressive behavior in teenagers?

Social media is a factor in some teenagers' aggressive behavior.

b.) Do not use verbs*, pronouns, adverbs, articles and prepositions; they are unnecessary for searching. Leave only the important words (mostly nouns and their modifiers):

Example sentence:

Does social media encourage aggressive behavior in teenagers?

Unnecessary words crossed out:

          Does social media encourage aggressive behavior in teenagers?

            Change adjectives and adverbs into their related noun forms (if necessary).

                                    aggressive behavior --> aggression

c.) Now you have generated a useful list of keywords for finding resources!

           "social media"      aggression     teenagers

BONUS: Try synonyms also. Instead of “teenagers” try “adolescents”  Instead of harm, try disadvantages.

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