From Inquiry to Academic Writing A Practical Guide, 3rd edition

138 CHAPTER 6 | FRom FIndIng To EvAluATIng SouRCES

■ Perform a Keyword Search

A keyword is essentially your topic: It defines the topic of your search.

To run a keyword search, you can look up information by author, title,

or subject. You would search by author to locate all the works a particu­

lar author has written on a subject. So, for example, if you know that

Paul Lang is an expert on the consequences of the English­ only move­

ment, you might begin with an author search. You can use the title

search to locate all works with a key word or phrase in the title. The

search results are likely to include a number of irrelevant titles, but you

should end up with a list of authors, titles, and subject headings to guide

another search.

A search by subject is particularly helpful as you begin your research,

while you are still formulating your thesis. You want to start by think­

ing of as many words as possible that relate to your topic. (A thesaurus

can help you come up with different words you can use in a keyword

search.) Suppose you type in the phrase “English only.” A number of

different sources appear on the screen, but the most promising is Paul

Lang’s book The  En glish  Language Debate: One Nation, One Language?

You click on this record, and another screen appears with some valu­

able pieces of information, including the call number (which tells you

where in the library you can find the book) and an indication that the

book has a bibliography, something you can make use of once you find

the book (Figure 6.2). Notice that the subject listings — Language policy,

FIGURE 6.2 Full­ View Bibliographic Entry

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