Grade 9 GLS
The Research Process
The Task
Today you are going to learn how to conduct research in the Library Learning Commons at Louise Arbour Secondary School! This is very important to learn at grade 9 as almost all of your courses in high school will have a research component. If you learn how to become good a conducting research at grade 9, you will be prepared from now until grade 12! Doing research effectively starts with formulating an appropriate research question and using key terms to find what you are looking for in the databases. Databases are useful tools for conducting research as they allow you to search multiple sources at once, saving you time and energy. However, finding information can be challenging if you do not know how to conduct your search properly. Below are the steps to creating a search strategy that will help you when conducting research using databases.
Step 1 - The Research Question
Examples:
- Does having recess daily improve the physical health of children?
- Is hockey a more violent sport than football?
- Can humans survive on another planet?
Possible Practice Research Questions
Will artificial intelligence (A.I.) be good or bad for humanity?
Can humans ever live on Mars?
What is the best way to minimize the impacts of global warming?
What kind of alternative energy is the best?
Should the Canadian Government legalize marijuana?
Does Canada have a problem with Islamophobia?
Should EQAO testing be scrapped?
Which is the better pet companion - dogs or cats?
Is multitasking good or bad?
Should Louise Arbour students wear school uniforms?
Who is the greatest Canadian?
Step 2 - Finding Key Terms
Examples:
- Recess, physical health, children
- Hockey, violence, football
- Humans, survival, planet
Step 3 - Expanding Your Search
Examples:
- children - kid, young person, child, toddler, preschooler
- violence - brutality, rough, fighting, foul play
- survive - live, exist, endure, last
Step 4 - Using Boolean Search Operators
Examples:
- Recess AND "physical health" AND (children or toddlers or kids)
- Hockey AND (violence or brutality or fighting or "foul play")
- Football NOT soccer AND (violence or brutality or fighting or "foul play"
- Humans AND survival AND planets
- Humans AND Existing AND Mars
How to Do An Effective Boolean Search
Doing Your Research - The Databases
Sometimes books on your topic can be hard to find because your subject area might be really new or really specific. This is where databases will become your best friend! There are two ways to get to the databases:
- Go to the applications page and click on "Library Catalogue - Louise Arbour". Then click on Library eResources. Click on eResources. Click on Intermediate/Secondary. Then you will find all of our databases.
- Go to www.peelschools.org. Click on the BYOD link. Then click on the Library link at the very top of the page. The link to the intermediate/senior database will be toward the bottom of the page.
The Databases - How to Find the Information You Need to do Your Research
Once you have found the databases you will need to start searching for information about your topic. There are many databases to choose from and it can be a bit overwhelming. Some databases are very specific (i.e. Science in Context, History Reference Center, etc.). and some are more general (Explora, Britannica Online School Edition and Power Search). You need to choose the database that best suits the needs of your research question. If you are not sure which database to start at, see your Teacher or Teacher Librarian!
These databases are the ones that you should focus on as they are most relevant to the topics that you are researching. All of the databases are great sources of information. They are better than a random search Google because you can find a lot of information here that has been written by experts in the field. Many of the articles have been peer reviewed, which means that they have been looked at by a number of experts and the information has been proven to be accurate and valid. You should not have to use Google for most of your research assignments. The databases will have what you need to get your work done! There is a link below that will take you directly to the databases.
Be aware of the search terminology that you are using. For example, searching for "homelessness" may produce many more search results than what you need for this assignment. Try to use key words to help narrow down your search. For example, if you want to find out about the impact that homelessness has on the Canadians, search for "homelessness" and "Canada". If you are not getting enough information, try to keep your search broad and general until you can find what you are looking for. Do not type in your research question!! This is not Google and you will not find what you are looking for.
Please keep in mind that you cannot click the images below to get to the databases. However, you can click on the secondary eResources link below, and that will take you directly to the databases.
Research - Books in the Library Learning Commons
- Go to the applications page and click on the "Library Catalogue - Louise Arbour"
- Go to www.peelschools.org. Then click on the BYOD link. Then you should click on the Library link at the top of the page. The library catalogue will be a green icon toward the top of the page on the left hand side.
Once you are at the main page, enter the subject/keywords of the topic that you are searching for. Keep in mind that spelling is really important! If you spell the word that you are looking for incorrectly, the system will assume we do not have it. Book resources can be limited as they can only be accessed by a few students at a time so I always recommend that you look for books first when doing your research.
Be Wise....Don't Plagiarize!!
Plagiarism is a very serious offense and sometimes students get caught cheating because they didn't know what parts of their work required citations. Play along with the following tutorial to make sure you know what to do and to avoid plagiarism!
MLA 8 - The New Way to Cite in MLA
Creating a Works Cited Page in MLA Format
MLA 8 was designed to simplify the process, helping writers accurately and intuitively cite sources more easily, requiring that every source type follow the same format. This means that books, websites, periodicals, videos, photographs, and all other types of sources now use this same standard format.
MLA 8 requires researchers to locate the same “core elements” from their sources and place them in a standard order in order to create their citations.
The “Core Elements” of an MLA 8 citation, along with their corresponding punctuation marks, include the following (in this order):
- Authors.
- Title of the source.
- Title of container,
- Other contributors,
- Version,
- Numbers,
- Publisher,
- Publication date,
- Location.
The appropriate punctuation mark will follow each core element, unless it is the final piece. In this case, the punctuation mark would be a period.
Example of an MLA Eighth Edition Works Cited Page:
Patterson, James, and Chris Grabenstein. House of Robots. Little, Brown and Co., 2014.
Patterson, James, and Chris Tebbetts. Middle School: Get Me Out of Here. Little, Brown and Co., 2012.
Sparks, Nicholas. Dear John. Grand Central, 2007, p. 82.
– – – . A Walk to Remember. Warner, 1999.
Twenty-Eight Days Later. Directed by Danny Boyle, produced by Alex Garland, Fox
Searchlight Pictures, 2002.
Let's Practice MLA Citations!
APA Citations - The Sixth Edition
Creating a References Page in APA Format
One of the easiest tools to use when creating a references page in APA format is Citation Machine. If you go to www.citationmachine.net , you can input your book, magazine, website, film or other resource and the citation will be created for you! Please keep in mind that if some parts of the citation are missing, you can easily fill them in using Citation Machine.
Finally, many of the databases create the citation for you! When you are in a database and you are looking at an article, look to the top or the left of the article to find a citation tools like (in some databases it will look like a check mark). If you click on that link and select APA formatting, the citation will be created for you and then you can copy and paste it into your references page.
When completing your references page, there are a few key things to remember:
- It should be in alphabetical by author's last name. If there is no author, then it should be in alphabetical order by whatever letter comes first in the citation.
- The second line should be indented. You can do this by pressing "Enter" and then "Tab".
- You do not have to number your citations.
- You do not have to put your list of citations into categories (i.e. books, magazines, websites, etc.).
- You should only include resources that you actually used in your research. If you looked at it, but did not use it, it should not be included in your works cited.
REFERENCES EXAMPLE – APA FORMAT
References
Atwood, M. (2003). Oryx and Crake. London: Bloomsbury.
Harris, J. (2002). Five quarters of an orange. Boston, MA: Harper.
Packer, A. (2003). The dive from Clausen's Pier. New York: Vintage Books.
Policy.ca. (2000-2006). Retrieved March 1, 2007, from http://www.policy.ca.
Westerfeld, S. (2005). Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse.