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COMM 1000 - Oral Communication

Guide to Oral Communication Research

Find Sources

a stack of scholarly journals on a table, including the Journal of Interactive MarketingAlso known as "Scholarly Articles," "Peer-Reviewed Articles," or "Academic Articles" or "Research Articles," these are

  • Written and reviewed by scholars and provide new research, analysis, or information about a specific topic.
    • "Peer review" means the article is approved by other experts before publication
  • Usually focused on a narrow subject or a single case study
  • Intended for an academic audience

Find Articles: 

Books on a shelf and a person reading on a kindle Unlike journal articles, books:

  • Are written on a broader, general subject
  • May contain a collection of related chapters by different authors
  • Contain less recent information

You may only need to read one chapter of a scholarly book! Find relevant information quickly by reviewing chapter titles or checking the index (back of the book). 

Find Books 

physical newspaper and tablet with news Unlike journal articles, news:

  • Is written for a broad audience
  • Is often easier to understand than research and shorter than both research and books
  • Contains recent information

Find News 

You've probably used the Google search engine hundreds if not thousands of times—but did you know with a few simple commands, you can take control of Google? 

Quotes 

Use quotes to require a word or phrase be present somewhere in the search results. In this search, the phrases "climate change" and "infectious diseases" must appear somewhere in the search results. 

Google search for climate change and infectious diseases in quotes

 

Minus 

Use the minus sign directly in front of and against a word for it to not appear in your search results. In this search, the phrase "animal cloning" must appear in the search results and the word "sheep" cannot show up in the search results. 

Google search for animal cloning in quotes and sheep with a minus sign in front of the word

 

Intitle:

Use the intitle: command to limit to search results with a specific keyword or phrase in the title of the web page. In this search, "microplastics" must appear somewhere in the search results and "Baltic Sea" must be in the title of the search result. 

Google search with microplastic in quotes and the phrase Baltic Sea after the intitle: command

 

Site: 

Use the site: command to limit to a certain website or type of websites. Find credible websites quickly by using the site:.edu command to limit to education websites and site:.gov command to limit to U.S. Government websites. In this search, Google will limit to U.S. government websites with the phrase "information literacy" in the title of the search result. 

Google search with the phrase information literacy in quotes and a site command for .gov websites

Unlike journal articles, magazines:

  • Provide information on popular topics
  • Are usually short and written for a wide audience
  • Often has glossy pictures and/or advertisements

Find Magazines