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CMN 685: Gendered Rhetorics (UNH Durham)

Resources and strategies to support assignments in Prof. Jennifer Borda's 2023 class.

Approaches to Searching and Finding Articles

Use 2 or 3 significant words or terms from your research topic

Develop synonyms and alternative terms

  • Example: women OR female OR gender

 Try a broader concept if a specific term doesn't retrieve enough results

  •  instead of Girls Inc, try programs for adolescent girls

Try a more specific aspect or element if you get too many results with a very broad concept

  • instead of sports, search a specific sport or category such as baseball or water sports

Use the connector "AND" to retrieve records with all the keywords you list to focus and narrow your results

  • leadership AND gender

Use the connector "OR" indicate that any one of the terms listed needs to be in the results shown; this usually increases the number of relevant results

  • audience OR attendees

Use quotation marks to indicate a phrase

  • "glass ceiling"

Use an asterisk * to pick up words with the same stem but different endings

  • gender* returns gender, gendered, gendering

Look for new words or terms to search when reviewing your results or reading the full-text article.

Some specialized databases allow you to limit your search in other useful ways age, population group, research methodology, language, etc.

Limiter options vary by database:

  • check the advanced search screen
  • view the limiters to the left or right on the search results page

Make connections through ideas and concepts rather than specific words

Look at the reference list at the end of a relevant scholarly article you found. This may lead you to earlier articles related to your topic. Search the UNH Library catalog by the name of the journal to see if we have the article online or in print.

Check "Times CIted" links, if available, in databases such as Communication & Mass Media Complete to identify some newer articles citing the article in the database record. This may lead to related relevant articles.

Google Scholar results include "Cited By" links to articles, books, presentations, and more. Note that not all links go to peer-reviewed publications.