Library Resources: Synthesis Writing
Frederic Murray
Assistant Professor
MLIS, University of British Columbia
BA, Political Science, University of Iowa
Instructional Services Librarian
Al Harris Library
frederic.murray@swosu.edu
Key Features of a Synthesis
1) It accurately reports information from
the sources using different phrases
and sentences;
(2) It is organized in such a way that
readers can immediately see where the
information from the sources overlap;
(3) It makes sense of the sources and
helps the reader understand them in
greater depth.
Sandra Jamieson, Drew University. 1999
TOPICsearch
• An Ebsco product
• Use Limiters to Narrow Search
• Example: Women’s Issue’s
– Full Text
– Topics
– Document Type
Newspaper Databases
•
•
•
•
LexisNexis Academic
New York Times 1851-2004
America’s Newspapers (Newsbank)
Newspaper Source (EbscoHost)
RELEVANCY
Ranking System
Beginning with 100%
decreasing to 0%
LexisNexis Academic
• National and regional newspapers, wire
services, broadcast transcripts,
international news, and blogs
• Limiters
– Sources by Category
– Subject
– Geography
– i.e. equal pay and women
– i.e. The Wrestler (Film)
Access World News
(NewsBank)
• A comprehensive full-text news
resource
• 500 regional, national, and
international newspaper and newswire
sources
• Use this resource for information on
social issues, economics, environment,
government, health, science and sports
Opinion Resources
• Editorials on File
– Ref 070.43 Ed48
• Gallup Poll
– Ref 301.154 G13g
– http://www.gallup.com
– an organization studying human nature and
behavior for more than 70 years through public
surveys
– collects attitudes and opinions of individuals and
key groups within the American population
concerning national and international issues and
events
Pro/Con Resources
• CQ Researcher
– contains information on current and
controversial issues concentric to the U.S.
Government
• Issues and Controversies
– provides up-to-date, objective information
on the most prominent and hotly debated
issues of the day
Online Resources: Using Google
Site Specific Command
Keywords
-Editorial
-Viewpoint
-Discussion
-Review
Gender equity pay editorial site:edu
Gender equity pay viewpoint site:gov
World Wide Web: Resources
•
•
•
CNN Special Reports
•
•
•
National Center for Policy Analysis
•
•
•
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/
Includes facts, statistics, interviews of supporters and opponents, and
much more on key issues. The site maintains an archive going back
to 1995.
http://www.ncpa.org
NCPA is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy research organization
whose goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to
government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on
the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector.
SpeakOut.com
http://speakout.com/index.html
Provides issues arranged by topic categories. The site is devoted to
promoting activism in a variety of areas.
Class Exercise
1. Select a topic ( if you don’t have one)
2. Find two articles/email articles to
yourself
3. Create Citations for the two articles
(use Citation Machine)
4. Print and hand in with topic selction
& name
Questions?
• Contact me:
– Frederic Murray
• 774-7113
• frederic.murray@swosu.edu
Thanks!