Library

General Writing Tools

• Oxford English Dictionary
  20 volume online version that provides a guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both past and present.
• Roget's Thesaurus
  A searchable online edition of the Millennium edition OR
  Oxford Thesaurus - Oxford Reference Online
• Babel Fish
  A web site for translating blocks of text or whole web pages from many different languages into English – the grammar is not perfect but it is good enough to get the main meaning of the text.

Writing a Literature Review

What is a literature review?  For some ideas look at the following guides:

• Review of the literature by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Centre 2004
• The literature review: a few tips by Dena Taylor, University of Toronto 2004
• Literature Review example
• Synthesizing research : a guide for literature reviews (print).

Assignment and Thesis Writing Guide 

Below is a selection of handbooks. To find more titles on this topic try a keyword search for “Academic writing” and (handbooks or guide*)

• How to write a thesis / Rowena Murray 2nd ed. McGraw Hill, 2006. avail Google books (some pages omitted)
• Surviving your thesis / edited by Suzan Burton and Peter Steane
  London ; New York : Routledge, 2004.
• Your undergraduate dissertation : the essential guide for success / Nicholas S.R.
  Walliman. London : SAGE, 2004.
• Writing your thesis / Paul Oliver. London : SAGE, c2004.
• How to write a better thesis / David Evans and Paul Gruba. 2nd ed.
  South, Vic. : Melbourne University Press, 2002.

Finding Theses on your Topic

Theses Database page
Proquest dissertations and theses provides a 24 page preview of theses written after 1996

La Trobe University theses – Masters and PHD theses are held in the general collection and can be borrowed. Honours theses are held by departments.

• Theses submitted to the School of Social Sciences
• Theses submitted to the School of Sociology Politics & Anthropology
• ADT(Australian Digital Thesis Program) The Program provides access to a database of digital versions of Australian research theses including La Trobe University.

Literature search – suggested method

• Determine the key concepts
• Define your search terms
• Choose your resources
• Formulate the search statement
• Refine your results
• Evaluate your results & locate articles / books
• Manage your references

• Determine the key concepts of the topic

Example Topic “What impact is border security having on the development of refugee policy?”

Each topic has 2 or 3 main concepts
Eg   refugees        border control       government policy

• Define your search terms – think of synonyms and alternate spellings

Refugees or asylum seekers or illegal aliens (US terminology) or illegal immigrants
Border control or border security or border protection
Government policy or legislation or treaties or law

• Choose your resources

Catalogue
Other libraries search widely if your topic is very specific – use subject headings to focus the search.
Libraries Australia- National library catalogue

Online Databases
for finding journal articles  -the top four databases listed under each subject category are the essential databases for that subject area
Politics
Sociology and Anthropology
International Relations

NOTE Search in multiple databases – you will retrieve different articles as they index different journals

Full Text Journal Databases
Journal sites are fully searchable, and the full text is available.
JSTOR journal archive does not include the last 5 years

Blackwells online journals
Register | Full List of Journals Available

Oxford journals online
Register | Full List of Journals Available

Taylor & Francis online journals
Register | Full List of Journals Available

Register first if you would like to receive Table of contents alerts for specific journals, then select the titles from the full list of journals.

Newspapers both as a primary resource and for current developments
Factiva - local, national, and international papers
Times Digital Archive 1785 – 1985 search 200 years of the London Times
The Nation Digital Archive 1865 – present. America's oldest continuously published weekly journal

Government publications

Statistics - ABS

Print indexes –

for older material before the online version of the index began (check the catalogue) eg APAIS online 1968 onwards, but library holdings of the print index begin in 1945.

Google Scholar – Link directly from the google scholar results to the full text of articles available to La Trobe students and staff. Set up preferences for searching off campus

• Formulate your search statement – combine your search terms to include all the key concepts.

Use truncation- check the database Help to find out the symbol * ?!$

Use the advanced search it often structures the search for you

eg refugees or asylum seekers or illegal immigrants and

border control or border protection or border security and

policy or legislation

• Refine your results – what are the limits eg dates, country, type of document. Look for relevant subject headings to focus the search.
• Evaluate and manage your results – your critical assessment
  Download citations - email, print, export to EndNote
• Locating the articles/books
• Always check the catalogue first. If we do not hold the item check if it is available locally at another Victorian library or place a request with the Interlibrary Loans and Document Delivery Service [NOTE 25 items is the limit for the Honours year].

Managing your References

• EndNote- Software for managing your references, creating & formatting your bibliography, and inserting citations into your word document.

EndNote Guides

• EndNote 10 user guide for Humanities & Social Sciences
• EndNote training notes (Swinburne University of Technology)
        Part 1 - introduction
        Part 2 - advanced
  Instructions for Downloading citations into EndNote from the library databases are available from the more info link for each database.
• NOTE- classes are held throughout the year contact your subject librarian

Referencing

• Style Guide – Chicago (Politics)
• Style Guide - Harvard  (Sociology / Anthropology)
• Online: a reference guide to citing internet resources this guide details how to cite many types of electronic resources. 

Forwarding emails

All library notices – courtesy reminders, notification of holds etc. and University correspondence is now sent only to your University email account.
How to forward email to another email account

Help

Contact your subject librarian for advice on finding relevant electronic and print resources, or assistance on how to use the databases effectively.

Book an appointment for individual research assistance.