PSCI 110 - Persuasive Letter Assignment

For this assignment you'll need to find at least 2-3 scholarly journals to support your stance. Scholarly journal articles often take several years to go through the peer-reviewed process, so a recent bill will likely not have a scholarly article addressing it. However, you can look for scholarly articles on the issue being addressed by your bill. An example of this would be immigration or climate change. 

Before you begin searching, you'll want to think about search terms related to your topic. Consider the main ideas of your topic as well as any synonyms or related terms that might help you locate information. The video below illustrates how you can develop search terms on a topic:

Once you have a list of search terms on your bill's topic, you can begin to search for articles. 

You can access scholarly journal articles through databases on the Cal Poly Humboldt Library. The Politics research guide has a page devoted specifically to databases that you can use to find scholarly articles and other sources. Read each database description to learn more about its scope and the kinds of resources you will find within it. You may have to try searching through different databases to find articles on your topic. 

Below is a selected list of databases. To view more, click on the link in the paragraph above:

• Academic Search Premier - Access to more than 13,000 scholarly journals and popular magazines in all academic disciplines from 1975 to the present.
• America: History and Life - Index to scholarly research on the history of the United States and Canada, from journals, book chapters, dissertations, and media. 
• JSTOR - Connects libraries, researchers, teachers, and students around the world with vital scholarly content in more than 50 disciplines. Includes more than 2,000 academic journals, dating back to the first volume ever published.
• OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) - Provides a wide range of research resources, including subject coverage in the applied sciences, art, education, humanities, law, social sciences, and technology.

The Cal Poly Humboldt Library provides students access to publications including newspapers and magazines. As with searching for scholarly journal articles, you'll want to develop search terms that you can use to locate on your topic.

Below is a list of newspaper databases that you can use to locate articles on your topic. For additional databases and for specific titles to search within, visit the newspaper research guide:

• California Newspapers (NewsBank) - Full text of many California newspapers, including Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, and San Jose Mercury News, as well as local newspapers and America's News Magazines. Dates of coverage vary, from 1984 to date.
• Ethnic NewsWatch - Full text collection of newspapers, magazines, and journals from the ethnic, minority, and native press. Coverage Dates: Varies; earliest begin in 1992 - present.
• ProQuest Newsstand - Includes the Los Angeles Times (1996-) and many others. Ask a librarian about finding older articles.

You can use the Journal/Newspaper Finder to check if the Cal Poly Humboldt Library has access to a specific publication, such as your hometown newspaper. Click on this link and then enter the name of the publication to see if access is available.