Communication: COMM 1020 Public Speaking

Remember that old saw, "there's two sides to every story"?  I feel like it is more like there's a million sides to every story -how can a person sift through the zillions of resources to find majority points of view?  The web is a great way to get any opinion published, library resources are a great way to discover trends!  This is the class guide for you to use, but I'm happy to help individuals & groups with their research -see my office hours and contact info to the right -->

1. Analyzing Trends & Ideas
(Some of the resources below present multiple points-of-view in a journalist-prepared package; others you get to sift through trends on your own terms)

CQ Researcher (What is important to U.S. voters right now)
[also: CQ Magazine]

Pop Culture Collection (not a lot of scholarly, but good ideas/connections)
do the "topic finder" do it! do it!  (search any word and see related articles)

Polling the Nations (a standby for libraries on public opinion polls -great!
Gale Opposing Viewpoints 
   open web: Pew Research Center (non-partisan public opinion)
   open web: YouGov (polls search)

US Newsstream (most U.S. newspapers -including today)
OpinionArchives (editorials)
   open web: Google Trends can help you brainstorm

2. Scholarship in the social sciences
Academic Search Ultimate (A big mash of many disciplines)
Library Catalog: USearch (multi-disciplinary -highly recommended)
   Sociological Abstracts (Sociology & Social Work)
   PsycINFO (Psychology)
   Education Full Text & ERIC (Education)
​   Communication & Mass Media Collection (Communication)
   Communication & Mass Media Complete (Communication)
   Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (PolySci)
   PAIS (public policy -National and World)


3. IMPACT!
(impact can be measured by "sorting by times cited")

Scopus  -Amazing/Awesome database, all scholarly:
            tip 1: select "social sciences & humanities" at the search page (unchecking the others).
            tip 2: Do a search and in the results, click "cited by" as the sorting option (right-hand side).  The most cited, most influential articles will now appear at the top.

Web of Science (humanities, social sciences appear here too)

Google Scholar (fun discovery too, not always complete)

Contextual Searching in Google
Realistically, there's a wonderful mess of publications, documentation, etc. out there in Google-land -how can we narrow our searches out there?

the recipe in Google is:
context:keyword(s)

examples:

opinion:kapernick
institute:sustainable farming
debate:picard kirk 
foundation:immigration
research center:child labor
poll:e-cigarettes
trends:street food
 

Now: Ask me 3 questions!!

Lots of keywords to differentiate stuff with :-)

who are the people that care?

identity OR values OR community OR culture OR stakeholders
 

what are the points people use?

argument OR debate OR position OR opinion OR rhetoric OR discourse

Dale's starter kit for engaging with complicated literature:

First Stop: Library Research:
As you find articles that you think are relevant, 
   get a small amount of citation information (title, journal, etc.)
   read the first page or so and write a sentence about what the article is saying
   find a quote that agrees with the sentence you wrote

Second Stop: Synthesis
After you have a list of articles, try to put them into a cohesive order where each article contributes to a greater narrative or point.  This can be helped greatly by a chaotic mind map where you try to tie concepts to each other into a greater whole

(Dale's sample is not the only way to do it, but it is one way that works for me :-)

APA Style gettin' you down?  Here's my top picks for 'Citation Management':
 

Zotero (great for gathering and managing citations!)
(Our resident Zotero expert is ready to help you)
This video is a good crash-course into what you need and what to expect
Dale's Video Overview! 6 minutes of your life!

NoodleTools (great for getting APA/MLA minutia correct!)
(how to use NoodleTools)

Don't fear the "Find It" button!


Here's the rule: click on it and either find a link to the article in another database -or when confronted by "NO ELECTRONIC FULL-TEXT" -request the item yourself at Inter-Library Loan (ask me if you get stuck for more than 60 seconds, I can help: dale.larsen@utah.edu)