InfoGuides: ENGH 702: Research Methods in Rhetoric and Writing: Find Articles

Writing and Composition

For research on student writing in specific academic fields, you may also want to search in subject specific databases.

MLA International Bibliography
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present.

CompPile
Focusing on post-secondary writing (not speaking or conversing), CompPile integrates journal articles, review-essays, notes and comments, books, dissertations, ERIC items, and edited collections. Coverage is limited to 1939-1999 (for more recent items, see the MLA International Bibliography).

Education Research Complete
Covers all aspects of education including multilingual education, health education, testing, curriculum instruction, administration, policy, funding, and all levels of education from early childhood to higher education. Provides indexing for over 1,800 journals, as well as full-text for over 900 journals, 81 books, and numerous education-related conference papers.

Communication and Mass Media Complete
Provides indexing, abstracting, and some full text for journals and books related to communication and mass media studies back to 1915.
ProQuest Social Sciences Collections
Provides global indexing of the scholarly literature in the social sciences, including full-text scholarly journals and key non-periodical sources such as dissertations and working papers, covering political science, sociology, the applied social sciences, criminal justice, education, and other areas. Search one or more of these databases, from Alt-PressWatch to Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.
Dissertations & Theses @ George Mason University
Access full text of dissertations and theses in PDF format, as well as a 24-page online preview. Content submitted by George Mason University and published in Dissertation Abstracts.
Web of Science: Core Collection
Contains citations and searchable author abstracts, covering scholarly literature in journals, books and conference proceedings. Includes: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Book Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Current Chemical Reactions, Index Chemicus, and Emerging Sources Citation Index. Additional resources available by selecting from the dropdown list next to the Core Collection heading.

Google Scholar
Broad subject searching; also includes items that cite a given book or article. Linked full text to select Mason Libraries databases such as JSTOR; otherwise, use the Mason Libraries main search to find books and the full text of articles.

Search terms and controlled vocabulary often vary, even within a given database. Try variations and synonyms. When available, check the databases' thesaurus for controlled vocabulary terms to use.
Use the database' suggestions for expanded search terms. For example, if you search for "graduate student" in the MLAIB, it will suggest "graduate students or doctoral students or masters students."
The default display for database results is "relevancy" (as determined by unseen algorithms). You can also set them to display results chronologically (i.e. "date newest").