Choosing the right keywords is a crucial ingredient in successful research. Keywords should reflect the most important concepts in your topic, and the more specific they are, the more targeted your results will be. You might need to experiment with different variations or synonyms until you find what works best.
Remember there are a variety of keywords used to describe the Revolutionary War depending on the tool you are using:
You will also be searching for the specific act, event, document, or idea you are considering as your turning point. Your professor provided a helpful list of these. You don’t need to search everything from this list—just zero in on the topics you want to explore. Try searching by the name of the act or idea (e.g., Stamp Act, Mercantilism, Common Sense), and be ready to try related terms or variants.
You can also mix and match these kinds of keywords to get better results:
The name of a law or act (e.g., Townshend Acts, Quartering Act)
The name of a rebellion or protest (e.g., Boston Tea Party, Sons of Liberty)
The name of a key document (e.g., Olive Branch Petition, Declaration of Rights and Grievances)
A concept or philosophy (e.g., virtual representation, natural rights, mercantilism)
A specific group or meeting (e.g., Continental Congress, Committees of Correspondence)
As you learn more about your topic, you’ll likely discover new vocabulary that can sharpen your search. When you find a useful source, don’t stop there—check its title, abstract, and subject headings for additional keywords you can use to dig even deeper.
Search eBook Collection: Ebscohost directly to find full-text online books (linked below). You can scan tables of contents and indexes for relevant chapters, and even search the text books for specific content. Information in the eBook Collection can be emailed, printed, or downloaded, and Ebscohost even provides citations in MLA and other formats.
Why search here? Use this database to search our collection of thousands of eBooks the MJC Library owns through EBSCOhost. These books can be a great place to start your research.
What's included: Thousands of eBooks covering a wide variety of topics.
The MJC Articles and Databases page will link you to more than 100 databases providing articles from encyclopedias, magazine, newspapers, scholarly journals. You can also find book chapters, primary sources, and more. Library databases are a great way to find full-text sources that can be accessed online 24/7, and then emailed, saved, printed and cited if needed. Below are some of the databases recommended for finding sources about World War II. For a full list of all MJC databases, visit our Articles and Databases page.
Why search here? Use this database to find information on U.S. and Canadian history and culture from prehistory to the present.
What's included: Academic journals, magazines, books, conference papers, and dissertations
Why search here? This is one of our History Research Center databases that spans our nation’s history from prehistory to the present day.
What's included: Primary sources, articles, images, timelines, videos, and slideshows
Why search here? Use this family of five history databases to get started with your history research. You can search all five simultaneously or each one individually. The five databases are, American History, African-American History, American Indian History, Ancient and Medieval History, and Modern World History.
What's includes: These databases include a wide variety of research sources including, in-depth overview essays, biographies, journal articles, images, primary sources, maps, videos, and more.
Why search here? Use this database when you want topical, in-depth coverage of world history from antiquity to the present. Read about the background, outcomes, and contemporary points of view for the major topics in history from every region of the world. This is a great database for finding primary sources.
What's included: You'll find pro/con articles, timelines, and primary sources.
Why search here? Use this database when you want to explore different eras of history through film.
What's included: Short archival films
Why search here? Kanopy is a video streaming database where you can stream thousands of films for free.
What's included: Kanopy includes a broad selection of over 26,000 documentaries, feature films, and training videos from thousands of producers.
For faculty: Instructions for embedding Kanopy into Canvas.
Google Scholar is a vertical search engine indexing only a select portion of the web. It searches across many disciplines to find journal articles, books, theses & dissertations, court opinions, and other scholarly content from academic publishers, professional societies, and select academic web sites.
Only some of the sources on Google Scholar are available free in full-text format. You can also connect Google Scholar to the MJC Library so it will identify those sources available through the Library databases. To configure this at home, go to "hamburger menu" and choose Settings, then choose Library Links. You can link to the Modesto Junior College by typing it into the search box, selecting it, and saving your search.
An MJC Librarian can help you access Google Scholar, add the MJC Library to the settings, conduct effective searches, and determine if the journal articles you find are peer reviewed.