English 302

Short research project

1) The first part of the short research project is intended to introduce you to the collections in Fenwick Library. To complete this assignment, you will need to locate five articles from our textbook in their original publications. The articles should be recent ones (that is, not the Darwin chapters), and should be ones that are assigned. In fact, you can choose anything on the syllabus from Week 4 onwards.

Every article in our textbook includes a bibliographic citation at the bottom of the first page. This citation tells you where the essay was first published. Using that information, go to the GMU library catalog and check the holdings. Search the main GMU catalog for the journal title; if we have the journal, the catalog will note which issues we have and in what format (microform, bound periodicals, open shelves). Locate the article and copy the first page only.

You will hand in the copies of the first pages.

2) The second part of this assignment asks you to find five articles which cite any secondary essay from our textbook (that is, any essay except the Darwin chapters). Locating works which use an author's work gives you a sense of how the work is received by peers, and it also reveals new sources you may use in your research. Citing a work, using it in research, does not mean that the researcher agrees with the work, but it does indicate that the work is taken seriously by peers in the field.

To find the citations, you'll use a citation index, specifically, the Science Citation Index available from ISI through the GMU library.

You do not need to make copies of these five articles; simply list them as a bibliography .

Go to <http://library.gmu.edu>
Select "Databases" then "General Science"
Select "Science Citation Index Expanded" (Use "EZ Off Campus Access" if off-campus. You'll need to enter your Student ID number when prompted)

You'll be taken to the ISI Web of Knowledge homepage
Select ISI Web of Science (not ISI Journal Citation Reports)

Select Full Search
Check the boxes next to Science Citation Index Expanded, and "1980" to "2003" (the default "all years" setting)
Click "Cited Ref Search"

In the text input box for "Cited Author" enter the name of the author. Sample: Dawkins R
Cited Work: Blind Watchmaker
Leave "Cited Year" blank
Click "Lookup"

From the list of 27 results, check the box next to any one and click "Search"
These are the citations of the article which refer to the work in question.

List as follows:

Author. "Article title." Journal. Publication info (volume, issue, date).

(Note, the 27 results for Dawkins do not represent 27 citations, but 27 references in various databases. One of the 27 results, for example, shows 500 "hits").