Opposing Viewpoints

So you searched the database, and ended up with a list of search results. Will every single source in that list be appropriate for your research? Probably not. 

Scroll down for tips to evaluate the results in your list.

• You do NOT need to read every source in the list!

It will be pretty clear just from your results list whether or not a source is relevant to your research. For example, let's say you're writing a paper on the effects watching television has on children, and you search using the phrase "television and children."

In this case, I decided to look at the over 13,000 newspaper articles when you search this phrase in Opposing Viewpoints. To begin, skim your results list and pay attention to the article title and subjects:

 

 

You can tell just by looking that many titles will not work for you. While the articles "MOVIE OF THE WEEK" and "Children's Aid Society Boosts Library Board" undoubtedly contain both of our search terms, television and children, the article title makes it pretty clear the articles aren't going to be about our topic.

But titles like "A third of toddlers' TV habits excessive" looks like it might be relevant to your search topic, because it indicates the article will talk about how much TV children watch, and perhaps why too much television could be bad thing. So it's a good bet that this article could have relevant information for your research.

 

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• Evaluate the rest of the article carefully

So you've sorted through your results list to find an article with a title that looks relevant to your research, and you've read the Full Text of the article. But hang on! 

There are some other things you'll want to pay attention to, as well, including:

Currency:  The article should be considered up-to-date, depending on the field. Health Sciences and Technology articles should be very recent (less than 3-5 years old). Articles of Literary Criticism, however, don't really go out of date. You can find the published date of an article right in your results list:

  

  

Notice, however, that when you sort your results by relevance, odler articles may come up at the top of your list. Pay attention to dates! You don't want an article older than your librarian!

 

 

Authority:  The author and publication should have appropriate credentials (experience, position, education, reputation) to report authoritatively on a topic. The author's credentials usually appear at the bottom of the first page of the article, or all the way at the end of the article:

 

 

  

Bias: The author, publication, and publisher should present information objectively, and without bias of any kind. Information presented with personal beliefs, emotion, or opinion, especially political in nature, should not be considered objective. 

The Viewpoints essays you find in Opposing Viewpoints are designed with a bias; they argue about a topic from one side or the other. Usually there will be two Viewpoints essays arguing both sides of an issue, like this example:

 

 

You shouldn't use just one Viewpoints essay. When you're doing research, it's important that you read different arguments and lines of thought about a topic, synthesizing evidence and refuting arugments, if necessary.

Most scholarly peer-reviewed journals make it a priority to publish scientific research        objectively and without bias, but magazines and newspapers may have a specific editorial slant that may affect what is published there. You may not find explicit bias in the description of the article or publication, so you'll need to use critical reading skills to analyze the author's writing for evidence of bias. 

Bias is not necessarily a bad thing, but if present, it's crucial that you are aware of it and interpret the information accordingly.

Sometimes you run a search in the database and get way too many search results back:

  

  

If you're still not sure why it's bad to get over 14,500 results for one search, take a look at the "How Search Results are Sorted" page underneath this tab. 

There are a couple of methods you can use to refine your search results. The most effective might be to use the 'Search within results' box on the left of the page. Simply add another keyword or phrase that is more specific to your topic, and click on the magnifying glass or hit Enter to search again. For this example, I added "reality television:"

    

Instead of over 14,500 results, we now have 183 results. All of them mention all of our keywords: television, children, and now reality television:

 

 

But if you don't want to add another keyword, you can use ready-made refining options. Just click on one of the source types on the left (like Viewpoints, Academic Journals, News, etc.), and you'll see the options running down the left hand side of your screen. There are several, so let's take them in order.

I clicked on the Academic Journal articles from our original 'television and children' search for these examples:

 

• Subjects

The databases make it easy to work with articles in a variety of ways. To find your options, click on the title of any article from your results list and take a look at the Tools menu on the right side of the screen. Scroll down to find an explanation of each one of these features. 

 

• Bookmark

This feature allows you to create a bookmark to the article on the page. When you select this option, you'll get a pop-up window like this:

 

 

You could copy and paste that URL into another document in order to go back to that exact article in the database. However, this will only work for you if you're in one of the libraries. This is because using a direct link like this skips the step of you logging into the databases from off campus. If you want to get back to an article quickly, consider using the Download or Save option, instead (described below).

 

• Download

Use this option to download a copy of the article to your computer's hard drive, or a flash drive. Once you click download, you'll have the option to choose whether you want to download your article in HTML or PDF format: 

 

 

Once you've selected the format you want, click Download, and use the next dialog box that pops up to choose where on your computer you want to save the article.

 

• Share

Use this option to share the article with the social network of your choice, including Facebook, Delicious, Reddit, and many more. Simply click on Share, and then click on the social network you use (or on More to see the entire list of 300+ networks):

   

 

 

• Citation Tools

The database will format citations for you in MLA and APA styles, which can save you a lot of work! After clicking on the Citation Tools link, a pop-up window will ask you to choose the citation style you're using, MLA or APA:

 

 

SanJac does not subscribe to any third party citation software, so don't worry about that option. Simply choose your citation style and then click 'Download.' A dialog box will pop up to choose where on your computer you want to save the citation. When you open it again, you'll have a webpage document from which you can copy and paste the citation into your Works Cited list:

 

You can also get an MLA citation if you email the article to yourself in HTML format, or if you print the article out (see directions, below). 

Always remember to double-check citations you get from the database! Sometimes the database will make errors with the citations, so it is your responsibility to ensure the formatting, punctuation, and capitalization of the citation is correct.

 

• Email

Emailing yourself articles from the database is convenient because the complete article will be included with the email. You can email the article to more than one address, and you can choose which format you'd like the article in (HTML or PDF). If you choose HTML, the article text will be in the body of the email with an MLA citation at the bottom; if you choose PDF, the article will be attached to the email in a PDF file.

 

 

  

• Print

When you use this option to print an article, the MLA citation will be automatically included on the last page of the printout. 

 

• Dictionary

Is there a word in the article you don't understand? Use this feature to bring up an instant search box for Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary:

 

 

Once you type in the word you want, up pops a definition. You can use the Previous and Next links to go to navigate the entire dictionary:

 

 

• Translate

Opposing Viewpoints will also translate an article from English into a variety of languages. Simply click on the Translate link, choose the language you want from the drop-down menu, and Translate once again. Wait a moment, and the article will be translated on screen for you.

 

 

 

• Save

If you want to save an article to a flash drive or your computer's hard drive, do not use this option: use Download instead. 

The Save option will bookmark the article in a special folder within Opposing Viewpoints you can 

 

 

You can save more than one article - in fact, you might want to save any articles that interest you, so you can look at them all later. To view your saved articles, click on the Saved Items link at the top right of the page.

From here, you can remove items from your folder, or you can select all of the articles to download, print, email, or cite all at once:

 

 

CAUTION: You must do something with the articles in the folder before you close out of the browser or switch databases! Your folder will NOT be saved until your next session. You should either email, print, or download the articles if you want to view them at a later time.