In this course you asked to read a paper that is provided, and then find other resources on the topic. If you read the original paper before you begin to search for supporting research, you'll have a much better idea of what to search for. It's difficult to search for articles on a topic you don't totally understand yet. Always start with general background reading, including textbook material, and move to more specific resources such as articles when you have a good understanding of the topic.
You need to find books and scholarly articles on a Politics topic. If you participated in the summer "Library Orientation for New Students" online course, you will have already gained some exposure to scholarly articles and using the Library Catalogue. Now it's time to take it to the next level and find books and articles on your own.
Take the time to read the online tutorials available from our homepage, if you haven't already done so. There are 3 tutorials: Library Catalogue, Keyword Search Techniques, and Finding Articles. They will help you understand what you are doing.
Start your research on the Library homepage: www.trentu.ca/library. You must always use the links on the Library pages to access databases that Trent subscribes to.
Before you start to search, think about what you’re going to search for and list some important terms that you’ll use as keywords. The terms you use for your searching will affect the results you get. Think of lots of different ways to express your ideas, because the first word you think of may not be the best search term.
Generally, use broader terms to find books and narrower terms for articles, because articles cover a more focused topic.
Keep in mind that the computer searches for the letters you enter, and not the ideas. If you search for "democratization", it won't find "democracy" or "democratic". Truncating to "democra*" ("democra$" in the Library Catalogue) will include all these terms.
Use the keyword searching techniques you learned in the Keyword Tutorial. Put your terms together with AND to include all terms or OR to find one term or another.
Executive power--United States
Presidents--United States
United States--Politics and Government
Canada--Politics and Government
Federal Government--Canada
Canada. Parliament--Powers and Duties
Prime Ministers--Canada
Canada--Social Policy
Capitalism
Democracy
Social Justice