SOWK 1001 and 1002

If you are just starting out, you may want to use an Assignment Calculator.

This will help you plan your assignment completion based on your due date.

Pick a research topic

• Read your assignment instructions carefully
• Pick a topic that interests you and meets the criteria of the assignment
• Identify key concepts of your research topic
  • Need extra help? Click on Choosing an essay topic
• Do some background reading on your topic using Wikipedia
  • Using Wikipedia wisely (video)

Identify key concepts:

• Use an online thesaurus.
• Use a dictionary or encyclopedia to find definitions and explanations of social work terms and concepts.
  • Canadian encyclopedia of social work
  • Dictionary of social work
  • Dictionary of social work and social care
  • International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral science
• Online resources like Google and Wikipedia, while not always accurate, are a great way to orient yourself in a topic, since they usually give a basic overview with a brief history and any key points. Reminder: you cannot use Wikipedia as a source in your bibliography!

Do an initial search for academic sources:

Here is the Social Work Subject Guide for further information.

Developing a good search strategy is important

• what is your assignment?
• what is the main topic?
• what aspect of the topic is of interest to you?
• who has an interest in that topic?
• what other language might they be using to talk about that topic? do they spell it differently?
• when was it relevant? is it a new idea, or a long standing issue?
• what other factors play into your issue? climate, population, government, geography, etc.

Once you've decided which terms are the most useful for your search, combine them in a Boolean search.

Use keywords only, DO NOT search using a full sentence.

• the brackets keep synonyms together
• the * will look for alternate endings
• AND/OR will modify a component to narrow or expand your results (the capitalization of AND/OR varies from database to database, it is better to get in the habit of capitalizing them)
• if you had a multi-word phrase, putting quotes around it will search specifically for that phrase, in that sequence, side by side such as "Human Rights"

Controlled vocabulary

Some databases have a list of terms used to index articles in a consistent manner. These terms can be used to search for relevant material.

This list may be referred to as:

• Thesaurus
• Subject Headings
• Taxonomy
• Synonyms

Filters

Use database filters to narrow down and focus the results you find. For example:

• Category or Topic
• Document Type
• Date
• Search within

Discover new search terms

As you read through a list of search results, take note of any new terms that are relevant to your topic. Search using these new terms.

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO BREAKING YOUR SEARCH QUESTION INTO A SEARCH PHRASE

Step 1: Write your topic out in sentence or question form

• How do Canadian social workers treat teenage drug abuse?

Step 2: Break your topic sentence up into main ideas or keywords

• Canada, social work, teenage, drug abuse

Step 3: Think of synonyms or alternate words to describe each concept

• teenage - juvenile, youth

Tip: Use dictionaries, encyclopedias, or a thesaurus to find alternate words.

Step 4: Add "Boolean operators" (AND, OR) to make a complete search statement

• Use AND to limit or narrow your search to results that mention all of your keywords.
• Use OR to broaden your search to include synonyms.
• Canada AND social work AND teenage AND drug abuse
• (teenage OR youth OR juvenile) - Note: OR terms must be bracketed.

Step 5: Add wildcards to search for all possible word endings

A wildcard is usually represented by a *. This is also called truncation.

• (teenage* OR youth OR juvenile*) AND Canad* AND drug abuse

Step 6: Consider Key Phrase searching

Some databases search each word separately. To ensure that your words are evaluated as a key phrase, enclose them in double quotation marks.

• "drug abuse"

Step 7: Evaluate your results

If you are finding too many or too few results, try these tricks:

To broaden your search (find more):

• Find synonym for each keyword.
• Search for a broader concept ('dog' instead of 'poodle').
• Use wildcards/truncation.

To narrow your search (find fewer):

• Add another concept or idea to your search with AND
• Use more specific words ('poodle' instead of 'dog').

The library's search tool Omni is on the library homepage and lets you do just one search to find books, newspaper articles, journal articles, and other types of resources.

Search tips:

• Use keywords only, do not search using a full sentence. OMNI is not like Google. You cannot type in a question or sentence and get results.
• Use an online thesaurus to help find synonyms for your keywords.
• Use the Step-by-Step Guide to Building your Search above to create your search string.

Narrow by:

• Resource Type
• Publication Date
• Subject
• Language
• Location

More information available here.

Identifying Relevant Articles

• Read the Abstract & Conclusion FIRST - this will give you a good idea if the article is relevant to your topic.

How to do I get material that is not available in the library?

You can order journal articles and print material directly from OMNI now. This service is free and has a very quick turnaround.

Journal articles will be emailed to you and can be available within a few hours.

Print material will be available at the Library Services Desk and you will be notified by email. You can even have your material sent to another university for pick up. For example, if you live downtown, you may want to have your material sent to the University of Ottawa Library.

Watch this video to see how it is done!

If you need assistance with this, contact the Library Services Desk:

• Library.Services@carleton.ca
• 613-520-2600 ext. 2734

Use the same Search Tips as found above in the Step-by-Step Guide to Building your Search. The databases are not like Google. You cannot search an entire question or sentence.

Tip: Most databases provide a way to restrict the results of a search to peer-reviewed or academic articles. This may be done differently from database to database.

Specialized databases you should use:

• Social Work Abstracts
• Social Services Abstracts
• Both CPI-Q and Canadian Business and Current Affairs Database have Canadian content.
• JSTOR and Google Scholar are both excellent multidisciplinary databases.

Special topics

• Children: Child Development & Adolescent Studies and Child Welfare Information Gateway
• Criminal Justice: Criminal Justice Abstracts
• Education: ERIC
• Gender and women's studies: Gender Studies database and Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts
• Health (including women's health): Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL)
• History: America History and Life (Canada and US)
• Human rights: HuriSearch
• Indigenous peoples: Bibliography of Native North Americans and America History and Life and Native Health Database
• Mental Health: PsycINFO
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): PTSDpubs and PsycINFO
• ​Public Policy: PAIS Index
• Political Economy: EconLit
• Poverty: Sociological Abstracts and World Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts

• Social change, social welfare, social care and social services: Sociological Abstracts and Sociology Database

TIP: Click on "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" box if the option appears. This way you will only see those articles are that appropriate for your research.

Do not limit yourself to these databases alone. Check Databases by Subject page to see where there may be more databases that suit your research.

Identifying Relevant Articles

• Read the Abstract & Conclusion FIRST - this will give you a good idea if the article is relevant to your topic.

What is Grey Literature

Grey literature is defined as "information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing" ie. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." —ICGL Luxembourg definition, 1997. Expanded in New York, 2004.

This is the best place to start for information on Grey Literature.

Go to the Think Tanks Page to find more Grey Literature

For Government publications check the websites for specific departments and agencies. Also, don't forget to check the Publications Canada website.

Grey Literature/Think Tanks for Social Work

Yes, you can use Google or any other Internet search engine to locate resources... but how do you know when what you have found is authoritative and trustworthy?

You are responsible for ensuring the academic content of the documents that you use. Consider carefully how you will assess the information that you find. You may wish to find answers for these questions:

• is the author affiliated with an academic institution?
• is a biography available for the author from a trusted (reference) source?
• what is the reputation of the author?
• is the article peer-reviewed?
• who has cited (used) this article in other research?
• is the web site associated with an educational institution?
• is there a physical address associated with the web site / author?

Evaluating Online Information: use the CRAAP test

Google Advanced Searching

Restricting content to file type

• to do this type in your topic and then "filetype:pdf" or "filetype:doc"

Restricting content to site .org or .gov sites

• to do this type in your topic and then either "site:.org" OR "site:.gov" OR "site:.edu"

Restricting content to searching titles only

• to do this type search "intitle: "human rights""

To exclude words from your search

• to do this search use operator "-" (minus) eg. jaguar speed -car

Understanding the Academic Articles you read

Reading and comprehending academic articles is not easy. Use the information here to help with this process.

Writing

The Columbia Guide to Social Work Writing

Avoiding Plagiarism

Tips to avoid plagiarism

1. LEARN about:

• Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing.
• This is an excellent video on paraphrasing which can be a little tricky.

1. TAKE NOTES: writing down page numbers and references throughout your research is a good way to save time when you need to quote and cite sources

2. NEVER copy and paste material unless you cite it properly.

3. At the end of each paper/report you must CITE ALL SOURCES you have used, whether you quote them directly or paraphrase the ideas.

4. When in doubt, ask for help!

Citing

The School of Social Work uses APA Style as their default style. If you're not sure what style to use, check with your professor or T.A.

• Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA Formatting & Style Guide. They give examples of all kinds of references, both how to cite within your text as well as how to format the bibliography. Also includes a sample paper
• APA Style see their Quick Answers section or search their site.
• You can also just Google: "how do I cite xxxx in apa", which often turns up the official apa.org answer and other reputable (look for .edu or other university web sites). Example: "how do I cite a video in APA"

Get one-on-one help with your research assignments or access one of our many subject guides. Contact me, Margaret McLeod for a one-on-one session.

You can also CHAT or text with a librarian if you need help after hours.

If you are interested in figuring out library research on you own, try the Choose your Own Research Adventure pages.