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English: 76-10X Series (First-Year Writing): Science Fiction

This guide contains a series of guides designed to help students enrolled in the 76-10X series complete their assignment according to the BEAM framework.

BACKGROUND SOURCES

Background Sources: To search for these sources, it's best to look for specific types of sources like encyclopedias, manuals, or even books.
For example, I might try to use Advanced Search to look in our library catalog by using one of the following searches:
  • [subject] contains Science Fiction AND [subject] contains Encyclopedias
  • [subject] Science Fiction AND [subject] handbooks
Here are some results worth looking at:

From the library catalog

Here are some sample results from our library catalog, based on the strategies above:

EXHIBIT, ARGUMENT, & METHOD SOURCES

These sources are more likely to be journals, specialized books, or primary sources like documentaries.  These can be found in databases.  Think about the type of information you need and ask yourself:
  1. Who might publish that information?  For example, datasets on conflict are typically collected by organizations that have an interest in collecting this information: for example, the united nations, international organizations, gallop or poll reports, etc.
  2. What type of exhibit?  Are you looking at historical data?  current data?  How long of a set?  Are you needing surveys?
  3. Where would this data be published?  reports (by for-profit), gallop surveys (by governments or a non-profit), statistical publications (typically by organizations)?  Original research (typically in journal articles)?

Core Databases

Relevant Guides

THE LAST WORD

The quality of your search and results depend on your search strategy:

  1. keep track of your search terms (they will change based on the database)
  2. keep track of the database (so you are not using the wrong strategy)
  3. notice suggested subjects and ways to limit your searches in databases (they can save you quite a bit of work)