ENGL-202-01: Intro to Journalism

One of your assignments for this course is to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed some aspect of the world we live in (health care, education, food production, employment, housing, shipping, travel, entertainment, recreation, etc.) This page offers tools for researching whatever topic you choose.

Reference sources like encyclopedias and dictionaries can help you get basic background information about a topic that's new to you. Aside from giving you a basic understanding of the topic, reference sources can also help you generate a list of keywords describing the topic that you can use to search the library's databases for more information.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been around for a little over a year now, so most information about it is likely to be found in articles published in periodicals, which are published more quickly and frequently than books.

Some general search tips:

• Scope - Depending upon how much information is available, you may want to narrow or broaden your topic to something you can successfully cover in the paper length you've been assigned.  For example, all of the performing arts might be too broad, but theater (think plays) might be more manageable. On the other hand, musical theater might be too narrow (not enough information), but theater as whole just right. Other ways you can narrow or broaden a topic: demographics (e.g., children, adults, college students, anyone), geography (e.g., a specific town, state, country).
• Terms that describe the pandemic - You'll see a mix of keywords used to describe the pandemic and will want to try all of them: COVID, COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemic, etc.
• Dates - Each database has limiters that allow you to restrict your search results to a date range. Use 2020-2021 to make sure your results are on the current pandemic.

Magazines, trade journals, academic journals and more

News sources

The following databases search articles in newspapers and other news sources. None of these are searched by Discover so you're likely to find additional articles here.