Skip to Main Content

Professional Writing

Designed for professional writing students, this guide takes you through the Library’s resources to improve your research.
Tips for Article Searches

 

  • Use Library databases to locate articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers
  • Use Research Guides to determine which subject-specific database you should use
  • Search for keywords and phrases that describe your topic. A keyword search finds more records, but not all will be relevant.
  • To retrieve more relevant records, search for Subjects Terms. Subject Terms are designated words consistently used to describe a topic (instead of sometimes using different synonyms). Subject Terms are only applied if they are a main idea of the article.
  • Use AND between search terms to retrieve records containing all your search terms
  • Use OR between search terms to retrieve records containing one ore more of your search terms
  • Use the Search Options, Refine Results, Filters, or Limiter features to narrow results and retrieve more relevant results
  • Still stuck? Schedule an appointment with a librarian to learn more about finding journal articles

(Thank you to Nelson Memorial Library at SAGU from whom I borrowed for this content.)

 

Articles in a Database

Are you wondering if the library has access to the full-text of an article? Once you find an article you would like to use, look for either the "Access now" link under the article—this means the article is available by clicking the link. If it shows "Access options" this means that the article is not available full text but by clicking the link, you can request the article.

Other Ways to Search for Articles

If you have the citation information for an article, you can search to see if it is available by using the Journal Titles Search bar:

Clink on "Journal Titles" and put in the name of the journal that you are looking for—this will show you if and where the title is available at Zondervan and the dates of the title that are available.