COMM 4395
Communication Capstone Seminar
Course Guide
Created 9-14-04 by Jeremy Donald, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Trinity Coates Library
This page is designed to help you find resources for your Capstone research assignment.
For more electronic resources in Communication, Click Here
The following topics are covered:
Using Quest to help narrow your topic
Selected Reference Bibliography
Using Quest to find reference books to help narrow your topic
How do we start to identify and narrow our topics?
A rough idea can often be fleshed out by doing some background reading in reference sources dealing with the broader disciplines related to your topic:
If my topic is: "How much coverage is given by consumer magazines to celebrities versus that given to ordinary people?," what sort of reference books should I look for?
Since reference books cover broad topics--such as media marketing, or, the film industry, you may browse call number ranges in the Reference area of the Coates Library Information Commons:
| Magazines and Publishing: | PN4728-PN4897 |
| Mass Media: | P87-P96 |
| Marketing/Consumers: | HF5410-HF5415.3 |
| U.S. Cultural and Intellectual History: | E169.1-E169.12 |
| Television*: | PN1992.18-PN1992.8* |
| Film: | PN1992.95-PN1999 |
| Journalism/Magazines: | PN4728-PN4897 |
| Semiotics: | P99 |
| Social Sciences: | H40-H61 |
| Statistics: | HA201-HA218 |
*For primary source material on television news, try the Vanderbilt Television News Archive
Selected Reference Bibliography--A list of Reference books to get you started
Searching by Subject Heading in Quest--A tutorial for finding books by subject
Other Tips for Searching in Quest:
Always use Keyword Search instead of Basic Search!
Use all of the tools on the interface!
Find similar sources by using Subject Searching.
Try using words like 'encyclopedia,' 'handbook' and 'bibliography'
in a Title search
Try the phrase 'edited by' as a keyword.
When viewing a record in Quest, always check the Detailed Description--this view will let you see a table of contents for works by multiple authors, such as you would find with a 'edited by' keyword search.
Browse the shelf near helpful titles you have found--there is always more there than you can tell from Quest!
Always check the references of the sources you find--they are a great place to find related works!
Finding articles in databases such as Academic Search Premier
Drawing a blank on which databases you should use? Click Here
Search by Subject
In a database like Academic Search
Premier, articles are indexed by subject* as well as by title, author, etc. Click
on their subject list to find out what terms they are using for your topic:
*Subject terms are also called Descriptors in many databases.
Double-click on the new term to see the thesaurus entry for that term. This will give some idea of related concepts, and how the database has indexed articles dealing with them. Then, use 'select term' to add the term to your search.
Combine keywords to reflect how you want your keywords to appear in the articles you find. Use AND, OR, and NOT to limit or expand your results. Use the pull-down menu to choose the appropriate field for each keyword: i.e., Subject Terms; Abstract; All Text; etc.
Select which kinds of results you want to see. Scholarly journals are research-based articles that are rigorously reviewed by professional peers of the author. They are the most authoritative sources. Trade articles appear in magazines directed at a professional or industry audience, and deal with marketplace issues from an insider perspective. Consumer magazines are newsstand, general audience titles, and should be used with caution. For more on evaluating scholarly, trade, and consumer articles, Click Here.
Finding Journals in the Coates Library
Start with a search in Quest, the library's online catalog. Select Journal Title from the menu, and search the title of the journal, not the title of the article.
Try the E-Journals link for a directory of electronic journals to which TU has access, and perform a journal search on the main screen.
For items not owned by Trinity, try using
Inter Library Loan
to have a copy of the journal article (or book) sent here!.