Scholarly Writing on Pop Culture Themes

Popular culture analysis comes in more flavors than just People and Rolling Stone articles. If you want to see how brainy intellectuals and academics have "read" the cultural significance of Star Trek or The Simpsons, for instance, take a look at the Journal of Popular Culture. You can access full-text articles from this journal written from 1988 to the present; go to the Poly Library web page at http://library.polyprep.org/, click on "Proquest Periodicals" in the center column--after logging in with your Poly ID and password, type in the account code "VVHCTQTQST" and the password "welcome" (both without quote marks) if necessary--select the "Publications" tab, then do a search for "Journal of Popular Culture". This will bring you to a screen that looks like this: Click to enlarge image


In the search box that accompanies "Search for articles within this publication" type in good keywords for your topic and see the range of articles that come up. Most 1- and 2-page articles are book reviews--which might give you some good leads to follow up on. But you'll also find much longer, in-depth articles like "The Final Four as Final Judgment: The Cultural Significance of the NCAA Basketball Championship" or "American Dreams of Mutants: The X-Men-"Pulp" Fiction, Science Fiction, and Superheroes."
Enjoy!

Research Skills "How to" Sites

• The Basic Steps in the Research Process
• Developing a Thesis
• The Thesis Generator
• Choosing the Best Search Strategy
• Creating an Annotated Bibliography
• Making an Outline

Research Tip Sheets

Everything you ever wanted to know about the research process--from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School's online Research Guide.

Poly Library's New Web Site

Check out the new Poly Library Web Site for links to research tutorials and periodical databases as well as the 24/7, "accessible anywhere" online catalog for all the books in the library. Links to New York (Manhattan and Staten Island) and Brooklyn public libraries catalogs and databases as well. Don't miss the links to How to Cite Sources and Avoid Plagiarism.

Nonpartisan Opinion and Research Organizations

American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy
http://www.ccfr.org/pos_overview.php
Survey data, from 1974 to present, focus on America's economic, political, and military engagement in foreign affairs. Recent issues: Revising immigration policy; Darfur and war crimes; using military force to "democratize" other countries.
The Gallup Organization
www.gallup.com
Results of recent political and economic Gallup surveys, plus "special reports" on social and consumer attitudes.
Pew Center for the People and the Press
www.people-press.org/
Research on attitudes toward press, politics, and public policy issues, includes topical access.
Public Agenda
www.publicagenda.org
Exploring critical public issues--abortion, gambling, race, welfare, etc.--since 1974; includes access via issues guides for journalists, both overviews and in-depth analysis.

Gateways to Research Web Sites and Databases

Useful Web Site Gateways

Social Issues links
http://www.multcolib.org/homework/sochc.html
Controversial Issues links
http://www.accd.edu/pac/lrc/issues.htm
Ethics Updates
http://http://ethics.sandiego.edu



and Three Great Databases!

EBSCOhost : General and Scholarly Periodicals
http://search.epnet.com/Login.aspx?group:empire&lp=login.asp

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/broo65650

JSTOR : Scholarly Journals (extensive and in-depth!)
http://www.jstor.org/logon

Senior Plan--Don't Fear the Research

So you're feeling anxious about s.p. (senior plan)? Believe it or not that's probably a good thing--if you're reading this in March or early April, that is! If you don't feel some anxiety as you start a major research project like the Senior Plan, you probably haven't asked the right questions. You're facing the unknown, which is always unsettling. And even if you've come up with a reasonable working thesis for your s.p. presentation, you never know what you might discover about your topic out there in the infosphere.

The worst thing you can do? Procrastinate. Leave it to the last minute, and your anxiety will morph into panic and paralysis. Not a good state of mind for your oral presentation!

Research is a process. If you do it right you'll probably find yourself circling around your subject quite a few times before you feel you've got a handle on it. When you first approach your topic you're probably going to experience what information experts call an "anomalous state of knowledge" or ASK. That is, you won't know exactly what it is you want to know or even how to ask about it. Or as ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has so famously put it:

The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

.........................................

So together our goal should be to find ways to wrestle the known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns into submission and get everybody passed on the first time round!