Project Builder : Finding Sources via Database

Visit and begin searching the Comp Pile database. Look for articles you could use to answer at least one of the questions you came up with in PB2A.

For each question, you will need to try a few keywords to get good results. If you are interested in the role of grammar in writing pedagogy, you might type “teaching grammar” into the basic search feature, and then “grammar,” “teaching,” and “school” into the advanced search boxes. If a search term doesn’t work, try synonyms or related words. You can also use Comp Pile’s glossary to find the terms that researchers use for specific ideas.

Get a sense of which questions are the most interesting and answerable, then select a single question from your original list to focus on. Using your search terms, find articles related to this research question. Read the titles and create a long list of articles that seem most relevant. Make sure that these are all articles; not books, argument, masters’ theses, etc.

Submit your chosen research question, the keywords you used in Comp Pile, and your list of articles.