Subject Specialist Librarian
Writing Center
At the Writing Center, you can get help with--
...writing your papers
...finding and getting research resources
...creating multimedia projects
at the Writing Center is located on the 2nd floor of the UGL.
http://www.clas.wayne.edu/writing/
For an appointment, use the website or call (313) 577-2544
- Getting Help with Writing GuideThe guide from the Writing Center and the Libraries has lots of resources to support you all the way through the writing process, from finding a topic, writing your paper, and creating your bibliography.
Citation Help
Get a quick guide to the MLA style.
- MLA Citation Style HelpA guide of resources to help with MLA citation style.
Need Help with MS Word?
- How-to Guide for MS Word
This guide page contains links to tutorials, quick guides, and other help for Microsoft Word 2007.
Welcome
This guide is designed to help you learn about the libraries and the resources that will be useful for writing your papers for ENG 1020.
When you need help, you can chat with a librarian 24/7 using the Message Us button below.
You can also text, send us an email, call or schedule an appointment. Just click HELP at the top of this page on the green bar.
The Library Homepage
- Quick Guide to the Library Homepage [Handout]A guide to the resources and services available through the Wayne State University Library System homepage.
Getting Inspired: Finding a Topic and Beginning Your Research
These library databases contain reliable content and are arranged by topics. They are useful for locating issues that are of concern to the public or the government, or may be of interest as a research topic.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowThe CQ Library is a subscription-only service that provides Web access to CQ weekly and the CQ researcher.
- Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowOpposing Viewpoints in Context is the premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Opposing Viewpoints in Context helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.
Scholarly, Popular and Trade Publications and Peer Review
Review the Popular, Trade or Scholarly handout linked below and watch the 2 videos.
- Popular, Trade, or Scholarly? [Handout]A guide to the differences in audience, content and purpose of Popular, Trade and Scholarly publications.
Example: Popular, Trade and Scholarly Articles
Hint: Select the PDF after you select the article link to view the article as it appeared in the print publication. All of these articles were retrieved from library databases.
Popular/Mainstream – Lau, A. (2014). A series of unconscionable events. Psychology Today, 47(5), 18-19.
Trade/Practitioner - Peevy, J. (2017). Holding staff accountable: Personal accountability is the foundation of a positive business culture. Auto Body Repair Network, 56(7), 22-26.
Scholarly/Academic – Welsh, D. T., Ordóñez, L. D., Snyder, D. G., & Christian, M. S. (2015). The slippery slope: How small ethical transgressions pave the way for larger future transgressions. Journal Of Applied Psychology, 100(1), 114-127. doi:10.1037/a0036950
Activity
Activity: Apply what you have learned
Here are links to three articles that discuss the economics of health care. Select the links below and look at each of the articles. Based on what you have learned about different types of publications, try to answer the following questions:
- How would you categorize each--as a primary or secondary source?
- How would you label each, as scholarly, popular or trade?
- Do you think any of the articles below might be from a peer reviewed publication? Why?
- "Big Med" (New Yorker link)This is an article from the publication New Yorker.
- "Lack of trustworthy data slows move to operational efficiency"This is an article from the publication Modern Healthcare.
- "Improved Health Care outcomes and Cost Savings for Asthma Through Targeted Home Interventions"This is an article from the publication Value in Health.
Need Help?
Chat or Email
Reference Desks
Undergraduate (UGL): 313-577-8852
Purdy/Kresge: 313-577-6423
Arthur Neef Law: 313-577-6180
Shiffman Medical: 313-577-1094
Strategic Searching in Library Databases for Articles
Library databases contain credible, published information that is not freely available through the public Internet. Access to these databases requires login with Access ID and password from off campus and personal devices.
SUMMON - A full-text discovery tool
Summon is a library discovery tool. It allows you to search almost all of the library's full-text articles, ebook, print books, dissertations and other resources all at once. This can be a good place to begin your research.
You can use refine your search in your Summon search results to show only scholarly & peer reviewed journals, select a date range, or explore a sub-topic. Use the " to the right of the article or book title in your search results to generate a citation in MLA style.
Select Summon from the top right of this page to begin searching Summon.
Disciplinary Databases
Following are a few examples of disciplinary databases. These databases are more structured and usually have a set of subject headings (think hashtags #) that use the vocabulary of the discipline to describe concepts.
To find databases specific to your discourse community, use the library's collection of Research Guides.
- PubMed@Wayne This link opens in a new windowPubMed is a project developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It is the premier database for the health sciences and medical fields, with citations for over 9 million articles.
- Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new windowThis database lets you search for scholarly articles and other published materials in communication, mass media, journalism, and other closely-related fields of study.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowContains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law.
Newspapers
- NewspapersThe library has over 30 newspaper databases available, including historical and current access to publications like the Detroit Free Press, New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Books and more from the WSU Library
Understanding Scholarship as Conversation
Types of articles
Scholarly journals do not only publish empirical research articles. The scholarship may also be presented as theoretical analysis or humanities research. Other types of articles include literature reviews, meta-analysis, guest articles, book reviews, and perspective, editorials and commentary. It is important that you are able to distinguish among these different types of articles, which each serve a purpose in communication among scholars and professionals.
Following are examples of these different types of articles.
- Empirical Research ArticleThis is an empirical research article, detailing a mixed methods research study using both qualitative and quantitative methods. An empirical research article usually has the following sections: abstract, introduction and literature review, methodology, results, conclusion and references.
- Theoretical AnalysisThis type of article is written to contribute to the theoretical foundations of a field of study. The author will draw upon existing research to form a new theory or explore theories in new ways.
- Humanities ResearchIn the Humanities, scholars are not conducting research experiments on participants but rather are making logical arguments based on the evidence they have, which often comes from texts, primary sources and other types of evidence to support their perspective and conclusions.
- PerspectivePerspective articles are scholarly reviews of fundamental concepts, prevalent ideas or the current state in a field. A Perspective article is usually written in essay form and presents a personal analysis or critique. [Adapted from 6 Article types that journals publish: A guide for early career researchers]
- Systematic Literature ReviewA literature review is a critical and in-depth evaluation of an area of research. A systematic literature review adds a level of analysis by identifying studies that relate to or answer specific questions. Systematic reviews are the foundation of evidence based approaches.
- Book ReviewScholarly peer-reviewed journals may include reviews of academic books, usually written by an expert or scholar in that field. You can usually find the credentials of the book review author at the end of the review.
- EditorialEditorials are opinion pieces that can appear in scholarly journals. They may be written by the editor, or an invited scholar or expert in the field. Editorials are usually not included in the peer-review process for the journal.