42. Research topics & Terms

42. Research topics & Terms References: 1. Langan, J. (2008). Exploring writing: paragraphs and essays. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. Publication Manual of the American Psychological 2. Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006). Writing Academic English. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc 3. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (2010). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Perhaps you need to know the importance of the research topic: A research topic is the topic sentence of the paragraph A topic sentence = states the main idea of the paragraph (contains a subject & a verb) + controlling idea (that announces the specific area to be discussed) The main idea or thesis statement appears in the introductory paragraph

Defining the essay and paragraph Essay definition according to Langan, J. (2008, p.243): An essay, it is a paper of several paragraphs, The main idea is called the thesis statement or thesis sentence The thesis statement appears in the introductory paragraph. The thesis statement is developed in the supporting paragraphs, (see next slides).

m Paragraph definition according to Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006, p.2): A paragraph is a group of related sentences that discuss one main idea. It can be from 1 to 10 sentences, however, the paragraph should be long enough to develop the main idea clearly. The paragraph is mark by indenting the first word 5 spaces from the left margin

m According to Oshima, A. & Hogue, A. (2006, p.3) a paragraph contains : A topic sentence states the main idea of the paragraph (contains a subject & a verb) + controlling idea (announces the specific area to be discussed) A supporting sentence supports the topic sentence by developing the main idea. The concluding sentence ends the paragraph by rounding up what was said in the paragraph.

Having a clear idea of what do you need to do ? You need to start with a paragraph that contains a topic sentence (subject + verb) + controlling idea that announces the specific area to be discussed Your topic has to satisfy the requirements of your course, but also be an exciting topic to learn

Start with some actions: You need to focus on the assignment Think about the point you want to make Write your point in the first sentence, your topic sentence Lets start searching for terms and sub-terms or subjects

For example :Terms Sub-terms Fairy tales Healthcare Management Tribes, Reservations Evolution Drug abuse Electronic Resources Snow White, Cinderella, Hospitals, nursing homes Hospitals, healthcare California, Missions Species, man, mammals Teens, adolescents Journals, books, images, maps

More examples : Escherichia coli Hispanics Endocrine Nutrition United States Mohawk Indian Policy & politics Beauty & the beast Research Health care Disorders Elderly Industrial Revolution Traditions Healthcare Beaumont

Electronic sources where you can find terms, sub-terms, keywords, etc. • Books related to the subject • Articles from academic databases • Google scholar • Merriam-Webster dictionary • Encyclopedia Britannica • Synonyms Note: Select the above electronic resources and save the link in “bookmark this page”

Where to look ? • Books: • Go to the last pages, look for the index or glossary, and search your terms • Read the introduction, you may find good ideas for your topic • Or in Google books look for the book reviews or select Free books • From the book: Cultural competence in Health: a guide for professionals, by Wen-Shing Tseng • See the Index see example, Page 134: • Culturally competency, 12, 17, 128 • Cultural empathy, 128 • Culture guidance, 129

An example from EBSCO Articles: Read the abstract Look the keywords, subject terms Learn the terms definitions from internet-look for academic sources like Merriam-Webster Dictionary From: Effect of protein intake on bone and muscle mass in elderly: Subject terms Muscular atrophy Prevention Bones-metabolism Osteoporosis Amino acids Nutrition- requirements

Databases • EBSCO is the provider of most of US UNIVERSITY Online Full text databases • EBSCO databases have subject terms indexes • EBSCO Multidisciplinary “Academic Search Premier ” is one of the main databases • Next, we will learn how to access terms and keywords

First we need to access the USU DATABASES 1. Go to http://www.usuniversity.edu

2. Click on Student Services from the USU Home page. Scroll down & look for the database or source By scrolling down you will find more databases & important links. Take a moment to open all the links, they cover local, regional, national and global information. Some links will ask you for ID & passwords, others are open access or free. Now click in Academic Search Premier Full Text (EBSCO) Click

3. For User ID and password, send an email to Librarian, from your US University e-mail.clopez@usuniversity.edu

Let’s search for terms in Academic Search Premier • Click in “subject terms” and start searching for words- nouns-keywords. For example, for Electronic Resources (information resources) use “Electronic information resource ”, • Think what term, subject or noun you would like to search

The presentation is similar when searching EBSCO databases: Medline, Eric, PsycArticles, Cochrane, Cinahl, Business Source Elite & Academic Search Premier

See where I wrote the term or subject to be search, please write your term. Now click the Browse button and see the results listed

I clicked in “Electronic information resources searching”, to see all the sub terms. Then I clicked in the same term above and retrieved a list of terms: broader, narrower, related and used for. Perhaps you will have to go through the list and select the term or nouns more close to your research topic From the list select more specific terms

Click in the subject term of your interest

If you were interested in searching, you select as many terms as you need 2. Change OR for AND, then click Add

Once the terms appeared, click “search” For example, I clicked: “Federated searching”, AND “Search engines” AND “Electronic information resources”

From the above list of terms, you can select your topic of research ; Information retrieval Assisted searching Boolean searching Federated searching Information- seeking strategies Internet searching Keyword searching Search engines Electronic information resources Online databases

Remember, you need to combine terms (the topic of your sentence) with other terms (controlling idea) Think of the terms from the list as the “topic of your sentence” And the new terms that announces the specific area to be discussed as the “controlling idea” Let’s combine the terms in the next slide

Information retrieval Assisted searching Boolean searching Federated searching Information- seeking strategies Internet searching Keyword searching Search engines Electronic information resources Online databases Electronic resources Academic libraries Databases Information retrieval Internet searching Federated searching Information retrieval Educational technology Literacy User Terms from previous slide (blue background) and new terms in white background:

Terms examples to give you ideas: Electronic Resources Fairy tales Healthcare Management Informatics Evolution Drug abuse Information retrieval Snow White Quality services Human resources Patient records DNA Pregnancy

Are you ready to define your terms or subject for your research topic? By searching “subject terms” you are learning the database vocabulary You can also search the database, see the titles from the result list and click in the title to read the abstract

Examples: • Perhaps you want to learn more about a specific topic and see the availability of academic full text literature • Select as many terms as you need or select only one, for example “federated searching” and see the results

Do you remember how to ask for APA , MLA citation ? Read the abstract, it will help you selecting your research topic

Let us know if you need assistance Catalina Lopez clopez@usuniversity or (619) 477 6310 Ext 2017 THANKS

42. Research topics & Terms