PAPER

Google Scholar has become a godsend for students writing their first legal research papers. Use it!

PARAMETERS

This is essentially a literature review in which you will summarize scholarly articles retrieved from Google Scholar on a legal or ethical topic related to your major. Format: 4 pages plus reference page, 12 pts., Times New Roman, double-spaced, single-sided, uploaded to Blackboard discussion thread.

DUE DATE

Last day of class: July 26. 

DESCRIPTION

To make the research paper feel less intimidating, I'd like to you think of it as a glorified book report because that's essentially what it is. It is not your job here to do case and legal analysis. It is your job merely to report on the legal analysis that others have done.

The heart of your paper, the main body of it, is really just an extended lit review. Literature in this setting means academic literature, and in this case, that mostly means law journal articles. That's where Google Scholar comes in: Rather than returning results from the popular press and other sources, it will take you right to the scholarly material you're seeking.

For example, if I type a search string like this — "first amendment" and "video games" — articles from law journals will be returned without all the flotsam and jetsam that would come back in a regular Google search. Then I can scroll through the titles to pinpoint what aspect I want to focus on — violence? copyright? advertising? (There will be A LOT about violence.)

Once I've chosen AT LEAST SIX articles, summarizing them for the reader of the paper will form the heart of the paper.

GETTING STARTED

All of which is not say you shouldn't use regular Google searches. In fact, that's how you should start.

Let's say you're a stratcom major and you came across a story about how some people are calling on Congress to outlaw the use of Photoshop to make models look unnaturally thin. (Yes, it's a thing.) You should start by doing some simple Google searches because at this early stage, you don't want to get only law journal articles, and you do want to see articles from lots of different sources and different perspectives. For example, articles from popular press sources (newspapers, magazines, websites) will give you the material you need for the intro of your paper.

And what about Wikipedia? GREAT! You should never cite Wikipedia as a source. However, it is often a great starting point to start learning about your topic. Better still, Wikipedia articles always have sources, often with links, so a Wiki entry can lead you to valid sources to learn more and provide references in your paper.

VIDEO COACHING

The My Major Method

The Google-Plus Method