Use the above assignment template to complete the assignment.  It's a rich text format file that should work in any word processing program. Clicking on the link will download it to your computer.  Find it in your Downloads folder.  If you have any problems, please e-mail me and I'll send you a copy.  You can enter your assignment answers right on this document and then send it to me by e-mail attachment.

Assignment due at the beginning of next class. Send by e-mail attachment to badke@twu.ca.

Consult the rubrics below to determine what you should be doing to achieve excellence in the assignment.

 Assignment Instructions:

Reading: Research Strategies, Chapters Four through 6.1-6.2

View the presentations for this section at https://libguides.twu.ca/UNIV110Online/presentations.

State your research question.

1.  In relation to your research question:

     a. Do a search with the Books tab in OneSearch (http://www.twu.ca/library/)

     b. Indicate the search words you used; and

     c. List eight books or book chapters that speak to your research question (use APA format). Put your citations in alphabetical order by author, and do not number them.

[Note: Books tend to be broad, so you may need to find books that cover your topic in only one chapter or section.  For example, if you have a research question like this – To what extent was Descartes a Deist though claiming to be a Roman Catholic? – you might find that a search on Descartes Deism gets you nothing.  I that case, look for works on Descartes and find information about Deism within them.]

2.  Do the search again with the same search words.  This time, use Limit by Subject to choose one or more subject headings.  You can see how to do this in the OneSearch Guide at http://libguides.twu.ca/LibraryOneSearch/Limiters, column 1. This site shows two options for doing subject searches.  Use one or both of them: 

     a. List the subject headings you chose.

      b. List eight books or book chapters that speak to the question (use APA, MLA, or Turabian format that includes author, date, title, publisher). Put your citations in alphabetical order by author, and do not number them. If you don't have eight books left, do the procedure, list the relevant books you have, and explain that there were no more. Chapters from books are OK for this assignment. You may find some in your results.

Note that, with subject searches, success depends on how many results you had before you narrowed by subject.  For example, if you have 700+ results, narrowing by subject should be relatively easy.  If you have only 25 results, there will be fewer subject headings available, and they will lead you to fewer actual results.  Here's how to address this problem, if you encounter it.  Either: i. Search more broadly.  Note that books tend to be broad.  Instead of searching on Climate change and Arctic and silver foxes, search on Climate change silver foxes, or even silver foxes on its own.  This will get you a larger number of initial results. ii. If you can't search more broadly and you have few initial results, use the subject headings anyway, even if this produces only 2 or 3 results.  Show the subject headings you used, list the results, and explain that there are few because you didn't have many initial results.

For citation format, see the information in Lesson Three and the examples below.

The following is a sample assignment to show you what is expected.

State your research question. Given the causes of World War One, how could this war have been avoided?

1.  In relation to your research question:

     a. Do a search with the Books tab in OneSearch (http://www.twu.ca/library/). Chapters from books are OK for this assignment. You may find some in your results. 

     b. Indicate the search words or word combinations that you used: Note that the main search will focus on causes. The way the war could have been avoided will come from my own analysis of causes.

World War cause*

World War (one OR 1 OR I) cause*

__________________________

     c. List eight books that speak to your research question (use APA format that includes author, date, title, publisher). Put your citations in alphabetical order by author, and do not number them.

Evans, R. (2001). The coming of the First World War. Oxford University Press.

Herrmann, D. G. (1996). The arming of Europe and the making of the First World War. Princeton University Press.

Herwig, H. H., & Hamilton, R. F. (2003). The Origins of World War I. Cambridge University Press.

Koch, H. W. (1972). The origins of the First World War: Great power rivalry and German war aims. Taplinger Pub. Co.

Lee, D. E. (1975). The outbreak of the First World War: Causes and responsibilities (4th ed.). Heath.

Martel, G. (2014). The Month That Changed the World: July 1914 and WWI. Oxford University Press.

McMeekin, S. (2013). The Russian origins of the First World War. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Offer, A. (1989). The First World War: An agrarian interpretation. Clarendon Press.

2.  Do the search again with the same search words.  This time, use Limit by Subject to choose one or more subject heading

     a. List the subject headings you chose. In this case, subject headings did the trick. Keep subject headings as few as possible.

Keyword Search One: World War cause*     / Subject heading(s): world war, 1914-1918--causes. 

Keyword Search Two (if needed): World War (one OR 1 OR I) cause*    / Subject heading(s): world war, 1914-1918   
 

      b. List eight books that speak to the question (use APA format that includes author, date, title, publisher). Put your citations in alphabetical order by author, and do not number them. If you don't have eight books left, do the procedure, list the relevant books you have, and explain that there were no more.

Ferrara, O. (1918). Causes and pretexts of the world war. American-neo-Latin library.

Koch, H. W. (1972). The origins of the First World War: Great power rivalry and German war aims. Taplinger  Pub. Co.

Lee, D. E. (1963). The outbreak of the First World War: who was responsible? (Rev. ed.). Heath.

Martel, G. (2014). The Month That Changed the World : July 1914 and WWI. OUP Oxford.

Offer, A. (1989). The First World War: An agrarian interpretation. Clarendon Press.

Petrie, C., Sir. (1968). The drift to world war 1900-1914. Benn.

Turner, L. C. F. (1970). Origins of the First World War. Norton.

Zagare, F. (2010). The Games of July: Explaining the Great War. University of Michigan Press.

Some results are the same as the first list above, but there are some new ones.

A well done assignment will include the following features:

1. Search terms that closely match the intention of your research question (keywords preferably drawn from your research questions and subject headings that at least cover the subject matter of your question).

2. Book citations that show promise of answering your research question (note that a book may cover your question in only a portion of its contents and still be useful).

3. Consistent bibliographic format.