By now, your professors will
have probably assigned you a
paper in which you are to make
use of scholarly journal articles.
“Right,” you say.
You appear at the library and
attempt to locate these mysterious
items. No sooner than 20
minutes have elapsed before you
realize that you’re utterly, hopelessly
lost.
I, like the caterpillar in Alice,
come to supply you with
answers. Hopefully, less cryptic
answers of course. And, you
can’t smoke a hookah in the
library.
You can use the computers on
the first floor to access journal
articles about your topic.
Sometimes you can read the
entire article on the screen. The
article has been scanned into
the computer and the text is
exactly the same as if you had
found a Xeroxed copy of the
journal.
The best thing to do is write
down the volume, year and page
numbers of the journal article
and go to the second floor
where these things are kept.
Don’t worry there are many
friendly people there ready to
help you find your journal article.
The main problem you will
encounter using journal articles
is that they are written for people
with pre-existing knowledge
of a topic.
The article won’t bother to
really flesh out a summary of
the basic points of your topic
because that knowledge is presumed.
Reading a journal article
as your first exposure to a topic
is very, very confusing.
You really should check out a
recent book on the subject, reread
your class notes or find a
helpful encyclopedia in the reference
section.
“Don’t have time for that,”
you say.
Well, in the long run, this
approach will save you time and
get you a better grade. Just a
quick summary to read will do
and you don’t have to become
an expert.
With all this reading, you
may not be in the mood to read
a book in your spare time.Why
not check out a CD from the
library? Try Kind of Blue from
jazz giant Miles Davis. I love
this album! The call number is
M1366.D38 K56 1987 located
on the third floor of the Media
Center.

Author