Home - GOVT 2306 - Article review (Aurora Borunda) - Library Research Guides at El Paso Community College

Background Searching

Credo Reference
Credo is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and hundreds of videos.

Search steps

KEYWORD SEARCH your topic. Use boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to refine your search.

AND will limit your search results.
OR will widen your results.
NOT takes away certain terms from your search.

Think of it as ordering pizza. I want pepperoni AND sausage but NOT pineapple. (Pepperoni AND sausage) NOT pineapple.

REFINE YOUR SEARCH by looking at the subjects or descriptors of the article and click on one to redo your search.

CLICK ON "ADVANCED SEARCH" to include the name of the publication and choose either Source or Publication Title.

CHECK LENGTH with ctrl-F to find either page length: 4p, 5p, 6p etc. in EBSCO power search. Ctrl F for 2, or 3, etc. in GALE power search. Remember 250 words is generally considered a page, so look for over 1250 words.

SAVE or EMAIL or PRINT article and save citation in APA format.

Tools for Citing

Bias and Fact Checks

Media Bias Fact Check
Most comprehensive media bias resource on the internet. Sources evaluated by news value & reliability and bias of content. Use the search feature to check the bias of any source by name or URL.
News Literacy: Is it "Fake News"?
List of other fact checking sites compiled by American University

Library Search with Databases Link

Online Databases
Links to newspaper, magazine and video databases and more

Databases

At the top of the Online Databases page, use the EBSCO and Gale Power Searches.
Consider using this search: Texas AND (election* OR vot* OR politic* OR gerrymandering OR republicans OR democrats)
View the class recording to understand the why and how of this search!
Look for length. EBSCO databases give the length in pages and GALE databases show it in words. Your article has to be 4-7 pages long. 250 words is a standard page, so your document should be at least 1250 words in length
Download or print the article and the citation.

In the Ebsco power search you will find these titles that fit your topic from Ms. Borunda's list and other political sources that you may inquire if you can use:

Christian Science Monitor

Commentary

Congressional Digest

The Nation (weekly)

National Journal

National Review

New Republic

Time magazine

Washington Monthly

Washington Post

World Affairs

Ctrl-F to find articles of 4 or more pages

In the Gale power search you will find these titles that fit your topic from Ms. Borunda's list and other political sources that you may inquire if you can use:

The Nation
National Review
New York Times
Christian Science Monitor
Policy Review

Advanced search: Publication title and keyword. You can narrow down by document type: article (rather than brief article) and then scan for articles over 1000 words.