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ENGL 2A: Critical Thinking & Writing (Krane)

Strategy #1: Search the Articles Tab

This strategy works well if you want to search across publications for your topic. Many of our library databases allow you to filter your results by source type (e.g., magazine, newspaper, etc.).

The Articles tab on the library homepage is one place you can search for individual articles from academic journals, newspapers, and magazines. Watch a video about how to use the articles tab, or about accessing articles you find.

screenshot of the articles tab, which says "search for journal, news, and magazine articles"

After you have conducted a search, filter options appear to the left under "refine results" and include format and year.

Strategy #2: Search in a Database

Newspaper and magazine (only) databases

These databases only include news and/or magazine content. They each include different publications.

Other databases that include newspapers and magazines

Filter your results by format type to narrow your results.

Screenshot of format filter in Proquest

Screenshot of format filter in EBSCO databases

Strategy #3: Search in a Specific Publication

If you know you want articles from a specific publication, you can search in the library's subscription to it. Check out our most popular subscriptions below.

Strategy #4: Try a Search Engine

Google and other search engines can help you find content only published online and/or not available through the library.

Search tips for these resources:

  • Try more than one search engine. Google results will differ from person to person and device to device. They are based on your search history (if you're logged in), your location, advertising and sponsored content, search engine optimization, and other components of the algorithm. Try searching in DuckDuckGo (which offers more search privacy), Bing, or another search engine and compare results!
  • On Google, try the following:
    • Explore the News tab
    • On any page, use the Tools menu to control how recent your results are and how they are sorted ("relevance" is the default)
    • Try the advanced search menu for more precise control
  • Add keywords related to the type of source you're looking for (e.g., news, report, policy, etc.)
  • Consider site-searching with the command site: You can use this to search across a domain (e.g., campus protest site:.edu) or on a specific website, even if it doesn't have a search bar (e.g., campus protest site:scu.edu)