Final Project Guidelines

BIBLIOGRAPHY-PATHFINDER
GUIDELINES & SUGGESTED STEPS

1. Select a topic for your bibliography/pathfinder project. It should be a topic about which you would be interested in doing a research paper.

2. Think about this topic carefully. Try not to be too general (e.g., a topic about which entire books are written) or too specific (e.g., a question that can be answered by finding a few facts or figures).

3. Write this topic in the form of a research question. Get it approved.

4. Break your research question into "concepts" using a "Search Worksheet."

5. Look up your concepts in the Library of Congress Subject Headings, in subject indexes (or thesauri) for specific databases used and, if needed, a general thesaurus. Write down any related subject headings that might be useful in your research and try to fit them into your Search Worksheet. Also do your own brainstorming for additional search words that might be useful.

6. Use online catalogs to find books on your topic.

7. Use online databases and print indexes to find articles on your topic.

8. Use the Internet to find additional sources on your topic.

9. For each source (book, article, web page or other document), write down all of the information about it which you will need to complete a standard bibliographic form.

For books, this information generally includes: author, title, place of publication, publisher and publication date.

For magazine and journal articles, this generally includes: author (if available), title of article, title of magazine, date of magazine, page numbers of article and volume number (for journals.)
For newspaper articles, this generally includes: author (if available), headline of article, title of newspaper, date of newspaper and section and page number of article.
For articles in an encyclopedia, this generally includes: author (if available), title of article, title of encyclopedia and publication date. Inclusion of place of publication and publisher depends on specific format.
For online sources, include author, title of document, title of database or broader site, date of last update and date of access (if the document is an article that has been previously published in a print publication, also include information listed above for articles)

9. Organize the information about each source into correct MLA bibliographic format.
See Citing Sources for an overview of why and how to cite sources.
MLA format is explained in numerous books available in the library, including: Trimmer, A Guide to MLA Documentation (PN 147 T75 1996) or Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (LB 2369 G53 1995).
MLA format is also explained at many websites, including Clackamas Community College Library's general guide to MLA format <http://www.clackamas.cc.or.us/library/mla.htm> and Janice Walker's popular "MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources" <http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html>. Links to many other websites with citation guides are available at the following page on Emory University's website: <http://www.cc.emory.edu/WHSCL/citation.formats.html>

10. Copy down all your citations (still in correct bibliographic form) into a single alphabetical list.

11. Write annotations for at least three of your sources. See How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography and Questions to Ask When Annotating for help in writing annotations.

Include any annotations immediately following the citation for that source in the bibliography.

12. Type up your final draft on a word processing program, save it on disk and print out two (2) copies.

13. Optional: Develop your final project as a webpage. See Developing a Final Project Homepage.

14. Turn in:

two (2) print copies of your project and
one electronic copy-- on disk ( 3.5") or as an attached file on e-mail to me at: brenner@smccd.net.

I will keep one print copy and return one. High quality projects will be included on the course web site and print copies may be shown to students in the future as a model pathfinder-bibliography or for information on the project topic. Please let me know if you want your name removed from online or print copies of your project.

15. If you want me to return your project by mail, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope for me to send it in.

last revised: 5-15-00 by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA

These materials may be used for educational purposes if you inform and credit the author and cite the source as: LSCI 105 Online Research. All commercial rights are reserved. To contact the author, send comments or suggestions to: Eric Brenner at brenner@smccd.net