1. Locate the Top Article Databases
- AzCIS This link opens in a new window
Assess your interests; check out careers and salaries; explore programs of study.
1. RESEARCH THE CAREER
Click OCCUPATIONS
- Then under What can I learn about occupations? Click Occupations
- Click a letter of the alphabet for your occupation
- Each career has it own web page with many topics, such as working conditions
- MegaSearchWhen you finish locating your career, explore controversies and search for them in MegaSearch
2. RESEARCH THE CONTROVERSY
When you search MegaSearch, you have access to over fifty databases for articles and other types of literature. From browsing these articles, you can can identify and choose to read about a controversy in your career.
Examples:
Career field Controversy
Nursing Should nurses participate in assisted suicide?
Financial adviser What are the ethical responsibilities of a financial adviser?
Dancer/Ballerina Should ballerinas observe weight standards?
Additional databases that you can search for controversial material regarding your career:
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
An unprecedented collection of peer-reviewed, full-text journals for academic research.
- MasterFILE Premier This link opens in a new window
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Original, comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues in the news.
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
This cross-curricular research database supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop critical thinking skills and draw their own conclusions.
- Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new window
2. Examine Controversies in Your Career
Sample Search in MegaSearch: I want to be a fashion model. What is a controversy or debate in this field?
In the top box, enter a word of phrase for your career. Then click Search.
- Enclose a phrase in "quotation marks"
- Use an asterisk* as a wildcard to find different endings. Example: model* will find any of these words: model, models, or modeling.
Focus on keywords that signal a controversy:
- controversy controversies
- debate debates
- disagree disagreements
- ethic ethical
To find all variants of these words, we add wildcards (asterisks*) to the stem of the word.
In the second search box, type in the following:
controvers* or debate* or disagree* or ethic*
Before you search, click the pull-down menu (to the right of this search box).
- Select AB Abstract
- Now, click Search.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Find information that helps you . . . 1) explain the debate/controversy; 2) support your argument; 3) deal with opposing arguments.
To find sources that support the points of your argument, you do Advanced Searches in Megasearch:
Here is a second search example:
If you are looking for the danger of being injured as a firefighter. Your basic search looks like this:
Now you can focus the search to find specific supporting sources. Use the third search box.
Search 1: Add statistics to the third box:
Search 2: Replace statistics with burn* or smok*:
Special Search Strategy
Truncation: *
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The asterisk * is a common symbol used to represent any number of letters at the ends of words
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Helps find singulars, plurals, and variant endings of words
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Example: nurs* finds nurse, nurses, nursing
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Most databases let you limit search results. Some limiters include:
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Language
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Publication type..such as Peer-Reviewed or Scholarly Journals.
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Date of Publication
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Phrases: " "
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Enclose phrases in quotation marks when searching the Web or most databases
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Phrase searching in individual databases may vary.
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Example: "fashion model"
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Example: "registered nurse"