Kopke+7th+grade+Research

When doing preliminary research, it's okay to use library encyclopedias and websites like Wikipedia in order to gain background information on your topic. You may NOT use a general encyclopedia as a source for your final project! Subject-specific encyclopedias are okay (ie. a World War II encyclopedia would be fine) because they give more in-depth information on your topic than general encyclopedias (such as World Book or Wikipedia) do.

= I. Online Databases =

A. INFOhio (check the yellow bookmark for the username/password if using from home, or fill out this online form )

 * EBSCOhost
 * Click on the "Student Research Center gr. 6-8" button.
 * Type one or two words (3-words, maximum) in the search box (ie. bombing "Pearl Harbor"). **Use quotation marks around any words that you want to keep together.**
 * Make sure you choose "Relevance" in the drop down menu. You don't necessarily want the most //recent// articles, but you do want the most //relevant// articles on your topic.
 * Read the description and decide if any articles are worth reading in full detail. Click on HTML full text or PDF full text below the descriptions to read the articles.
 * To find the citation for the articles, click on "Print" at the top of the screen, then check the button next to "Citation Format," then choose "MLA (Modern Language Assoc.)" from the drop-down menu. Click the "Print" button, then cancel out of the print screen. Highlight the entire citation under "Works Cited" and copy/paste it into your Word document titled Bibliography.

B. Public Library of Cincinnati (you will need a public library card number & PIN...or you can use Mrs. Walker's. Check the back of the yellow bookmark)

 * U.S. History in Context
 * If you don't know what topic you want to choose, click on "Browse Topics" on the top toolbar and you'll get hundreds of ideas.
 * Once you've clicked on one of those topics or entered your own into the search box, you will see a box on the right titled "On This Page." Click on any of the categories (Featured Content, Reference, Primary Sources, News, Magazines, Academic Journals, Videos, Images, Audio, or Related Topics) and then click on "View All 26" (or whatever the number is) to see everything in that category.
 * Click on the title of the article that sounds most relevant and read through it.
 * To find the citation for the articles, click on "Citation Tools" on the right side of your page under the heading "Tools." Click on the button next to MLA (Modern Language Association), choose "Download," then "Open." Highlight and copy/paste the entire citation into your Word document titled Bibliography.


 * Student Resources in Context
 * If you don't know what topic you want to choose, click on "Browse Topics" on the top toolbar and you'll get hundreds of ideas.
 * Once you've clicked on one of those topics or entered your own into the search box, you will see a box on the right titled "On This Page." Click on any of the categories (Featured Content, Reference, Primary Sources, News, Magazines, Academic Journals, Videos, Images, Audio, or Related Topics) and then click on "View All 26" (or whatever the number is) to see everything in that category.
 * Click on the title of the article that sounds most relevant and read through it.
 * To find the citation for the articles, click on "Citation Tools" on the right side of your page under the heading "Tools." Click on the button next to MLA (Modern Language Association), choose "Download," then "Open." Highlight and copy/paste the entire citation into your Word document titled Bibliography.


 * Opposing Viewpoints in Context
 * Not all topics will be included in this database, but some of the more common ones might.
 * Type your topic in the search box, and click on "Viewpoints" in the column of links on the left.
 * Read through the essay(s) carefully to see if there's anything in there that would help you with this project.
 * There are other categories that may also have good information: Primary Sources, News, Academic Journals, Reference, Websites, Magazines, Videos, Images, Audio, and Related Topics.
 * Click on the titles of any articles that sounds most relevant and read through them.
 * To find the citation for the articles, click on "Citation Tools" on the right side of your page under the heading "Tools." Click on the button next to MLA (Modern Language Association), choose "Download," then "Open." Highlight and copy/paste the entire citation into your Word document titled Bibliography.


 * Biography in Context
 * Only use this if you're researching a person.
 * Type your person's name in the search box.
 * Read through the results carefully to make sure that you're getting the right person (for example, Michael Jordan the basketball player, not Michael Jordan the CEO).
 * You will see a box on the right titled "On This Page." Click on any of the categories (Featured Content, Reference, Primary Sources, News, Magazines, Academic Journals, Videos, Images, Audio, or Related Topics) and then click on "View All 26" (or whatever the number is) to see everything in that category. Click on the title of the article that sounds most relevant and read through it.
 * To find the citation for the articles, click on "Citation Tools" on the right side of your page under the heading "Tools." Click on the button next to MLA (Modern Language Association), choose "Download," then "Open." Highlight and copy/paste the entire citation into your Word document titled Bibliography.


 * Literature Resource Center
 * Only use this if you're researching an author.
 * Type your author's name in the search box.
 * Look carefully at the tabs at the top of your page. If you're looking for Biographical information, click on the Biographies tab. If you're looking for analysis of the author's works (novels, poems, stories, etc.), click on the Literature Criticism tab. If you want overviews of the author's works, click on the Topic & Work Overviews tab. If you want reviews of the author's works and/or newspaper & magazine articles about the author, click on the Reviews & News tab. If you're looking for primary sources, click on the Primary Sources tab. If you're looking for videos, images, audio, or any type of multimedia, click on the Multimedia tab.
 * Once you have found an article, click on the Full Text button to read the full article.
 * To find the citation, click on "Citation Tools" on the right side of your page under the heading "Tools." Make sure that MLA 7 is checked, click Save, then click Open. Highlight and copy/paste the entire citation into your Word document titled Bibliography.

= II. Books = Use the online catalog to look for books on your topic in our library.
 * If you want to see if Whitaker has any books on your topic, choose "Whitaker Elementary" from the drop-down menu next to "library" then ask Mrs. Walker to get those books for you. Make sure you know the title and preferably the author before asking.

= ‍III. Websites = A. Use the ABCs of website evaluation:
 * A = authority, accuracy (who is the author and what authority does he/she have to be writing anything on the subject? How accurate does it look? Are there typos or spelling mistakes?)
 * B = bias (is the author trying to convince you of something or persuade you to believe something, only giving one side of the story?)
 * C = currency (how recent is the information? Can we trust it to be accurate when information changes so quickly these days?)

B. Use EasyBib's Research tab to get an idea if certain websites are credible, maybe credible, or not credible.
 * Beware: sometimes websites haven't been evaluated by EasyBib (or sometimes they go easy on sites like Wikipedia), so always use your powers of evaluation on any website that you find!‍ **

IV. Taking Notes & Creating an Outline
A. Create an EasyBib account
 * Go to EasyBib**from a school computer** to create an account. Click on "Register" at the top right side of your screen. You'll need to give a first name, last name, email address, create a password (MAKE IT ONE THAT YOU WILL REMEMBER, LIKE YOUR STUDENT ID #), and confirm your password. Ignore the coupon code.
 * Once you're logged in, you can create a project. Give it a title and make sure that you choose MLA 7 style.

B. Click on the Notebook link in your project to start taking notes/creating an outline.
 * View the EasyBib Notetaking Video
 * You don't HAVE to use the EasyBib Notebook feature, but it's an option. Other options include using Evernote, index cards (here's a helpful tutorial for using index cards) or a Word document.
 * Read the EasyBib Taking Notes Summary
 * Read the EasyBib Outline Summary
 * Read the EasyBib Writing Summary

V. Creating Your Bibliography
Here is a sample Works Cited/Bibliography page: @http://dianahacker.com/pdfs/hacker-daly-mla-wc.pdf
 * Make sure you center the title Bibliography at the top of the page.
 * Make sure that your citations begin at the left margin. The first line of your citation will be normal, but every line after the first will need to be indented. To do this, you will need to press "enter" at the end of your first line, then press the indent button for each line after the first.
 * Make sure that your citations are in alphabetical order according to the first letter on the first line of each citation. See the example for details.
 * Make sure that you double space in between your citations.

A. Click on the Bibliography link in your project to start creating citations, or click on the Bibliography tab at the top of the page.

If you're citing Websites:

 * At the top of the search box, choose the Website tab.
 * Paste the URL (web address) in the search box and click "cite this."
 * If EasyBib recognizes the website, it will fill in the boxes for you.
 * Double check each of the boxes to make sure they've entered the correct information. Change or add anything that needs to be changed or added, especially website title/article title, author, and date of website publication.
 * Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Create Citation." Copy & paste the created citation into your Bibliography page if you've already got one started.
 * If EasyBib does NOT recognize the website, you will need to fill in the boxes manually.
 * Do your best to fill in all of the blanks, but ignore the ones you can't fill.
 * For author & date, look at the top and the bottom of the page to see if you can find that information. If there's not a specific date, you can use the date that's usually at the bottom of the page with a copyright symbol beside it. For example, if you see ©2006-2012, put 2012 in the year box for the date.
 * When finished, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Create Citation." Copy & paste the created citation into your Bibliography page if you've already got one started

If you're citing Books:

 * At the top of the search box, choose the Book tab.
 * Type the title of the book in the search box and click "cite this."
 * If EasyBib recognizes the title, it will show a list of books and authors with publishers and publication dates. Look for the correct one. If you are not sure which book is yours, you can click on the title and it will show you a picture of the cover. That should help. Look carefully at publication dates because sometimes that is the only difference between 2 very similar books.
 * Once you have found the right one, click on "Select" and it will fill in the boxes for you.
 * Double check each of the boxes to make sure they've entered the correct information. Change or add anything that needs to be changed or added.
 * Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Create Citation." Copy & paste the created citation into your Bibliography page if you've already got one started.
 * If EasyBib does NOT recognize the title, you will need to fill in the boxes manually.
 * Do your best to fill in all of the blanks, but leave the ones you can't fill blank.
 * The publisher should be listed at the bottom of the title page. If not, it is listed on the back of the title page along with the publication date (look for the "c" with a circle around it: ©).
 * Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Create Citation." Copy & paste the created citation into your Bibliography page if you've already got one started.

If you're citing Online Databases (these should all be done for you somewhere on the page where you got the article, but if not, follow these instructions):

 * At the top of the search box, choose the Database tab.
 * Warning: this will be the hardest citation to create. You will probably want to ask Mrs. Walker for help.
 * In the drop-down menu, choose what type of article you will be citing (ie. newspaper, magazine, journal, encyclopedia, etc.).
 * If you are not sure, choose "article published by a database."
 * Do your best to fill in all of the blanks.
 * Article Title = the title at the top of the article
 * Contributors = author or editor. Sometimes you cannot find an author/editor and that's okay. Leave it blank if that is the case.
 * Database = MAS Ultra - School Edition
 * Publisher/Service Provider = EBSCOhost
 * Electronically Published = the date that the article was written. It is usually close to the top of the page.
 * Date Accessed = today's date. Click on "Today" to fill in the blanks with today's date.
 * URL = the Persistent Link to this Record (Permalink)
 * If you are sure, choose whatever it is (newspaper, magazine, journal, encyclopedia, etc.)
 * Do your best to fill in all of the blanks.
 * Article Title = the title at the top of the article
 * Contributors = author or editor. Sometimes you cannot find an author/editor and that's okay. Leave it blank if that is the case.
 * Journal/Newspaper/Magazine/Encyclopedia Title = usually found near the top of the page where it says "Source."
 * City (optional)
 * Advanced Info (if you know the edition, section, and/or volume numbers)
 * Date Published = the date that the article was written. It is usually close to the top of the page.
 * Pages (start, end) = if you know the beginning page number and the end page number.
 * Database = MAS Ultra - School Edition
 * Publisher/Service Provider = EBSCOhost
 * Date Accessed = today's date. Click on "Today" to fill in the blanks with today's date.
 * URL = the Persistent Link to this Record (Permalink)
 * Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Create Citation." Copy & paste the created citation into your Bibliography page if you've already got one started.

If you're citing Images/Audio/Film-Online Video, etc:

 * At the top of the search box, choose the tab that reads "All 59 options."
 * Choose whichever type of source you used.
 * You can try typing the URL or title of the film/video in the search box to see if EasyBib recognizes the website and/or title. If not, you'll have to fill in the blanks. Ask Mrs. Walker if you need help.
 * As always, if you do not know something (ie. Main performers), leave the box blank.