Social Work Research Guide

Your Annotated Bibliography Assignment

"Here are the steps suggested by your professor to follow for the 'Term paper outline and annotated bibliography' assignment:

Step 1 - Decide the social movement you are going to focus on. Develop your keywords/search terms and search strategy.
Step 2 - Find the five high-quality academic sources you are going to use that will cover: the origins, context, conditions of the social movement, the actions taken to bring about change, the social work profession's involvement in the movement (include reference to the profession's Code of Ethics), and changes, if any, that happened because of the social movement. Use the Library's OCtopus search engine, input the keywords/search terms you have developed, and then select the peer-review limiter or resource type on the left.
Step 3 - Read the five sources
Step 4 - Summarize and critique the five sources
Step 5 - Write the term paper - see the structure below. 
Step 6 - Begin writing the 'Term paper outline and annotated bibliography' assignment with your draft thesis statement, which is one sentence:. (Your chosen social movement) led to / is leading to (specific changes) thanks to (the specific role of social workers involved in this movement).

Then write your outline:

1. Origins and contextual factors particular to this movement. 2 to 3 bullet points max, referencing the sources from your annotated bibliography. APA referencing: According to Mallinson (2023: 15), bla bla bla…. Do the same for the other sections of the outline. 
2. Conditions that led to the formation of this movement. 2 to 3 bullet points max.
3. Actions taken to bring about change. 2 to 3 bullet points max.
4. The social work profession’s involvement in the movement. Link the social work efforts to the Canadian Association of Social Work’s Code of Ethics.. 2 to 3 bullet points max.
5. Changes, if any, that happened because of the social movement. Include successes and limitations. Identify changes at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels (these terms are defined in your textbook). If there were no changes, explain why. 2 to 3 bullet points max.
6. Then write your annotated bibliography:

Source 1: Peer reviewed academic journal article. Use the Library's OCtopus search engine, input the keywords/search terms you have developed, and then select the peer-review limiter on the left.

Paragraph 1: Summary of the article, the main points, the content.
Paragraph 2: State the relevance of this article to the social movement you are researching. Assess/critique the article, identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

Do the same for the other sources below.

• Source 2: Peer reviewed academic journal article.- Use the Library's OCtopus search engine, input the keywords/search terms you have developed, and then select the peer-review limiter on the left.
• Source 4: An academic book, a class reading from SOCW200A or a peer reviewed academic journal. Limit to resource type using the filters on the left.
• Source 5: An academic book, a class reading from SOCW200A or a peer reviewed academic journal.  

Focus on a social movement in any country in the English-speaking world that has an established social work profession with a Code of Ethics, since one of the parts of the assignment is to find out about the social work profession's involvement in the social movement, linking the profession's efforts to the (Canadian or insert country) Association of Social Work's Code of Ethics. You can use more than one country for this assignment, but I strongly encourage you to use one country, to make it easier on yourself. You must choose one country to focus on when it comes to the involvement of the social work profession and the country’s Code of Ethics."

What is your information need?

If you know what you're looking for, you'll be better able to recognize it when you've found your answer. Defining your information need helps you know where to start looking. What information do you already have on the subject? What facts or background information do you already know? Do you want general or specific information about the subject? How much information do you want? A single fact? A paragraph? An entire book? What types of information do you want? What information sources (databases, library catalogs, encyclopedias, the Internet) will help you find the information you need? 

Begin with a Research Plan

1. Brainstorm topics you are interested in - Choose your topic
2. Review your assignment requirements
3. Brainstorm keywords and synonyms that define your topic - Gather background information
4. Gather more background information and find relevant resources

• Examine your assignment and identify any requirements.
• Define and explore your topic. Try narrowing your topic down or broadening it.
• Clearly state your research question, what question are you trying to answer?
• What keywords and synonyms are related to your topic?
• Find resources related to your topic. 
• Evaluate what you have found against your research questions and assignment. Evaluate the quality of your sources.
• Begin extracting information from your sources and document where you are getting the information from. Create references and citations for your sources. 

Searching for Reliable Resources

Search Strategy

1. Identify main concepts from your research question or assignment, these are the KEYWORDS
2. List your search terms, for each concept think of synonyms and related terms (broader and narrower)
3. Combine search terms with AND and OR

Tips!

• Try several different searches
• Scan results for subjects that may be related

Your Assignment

1. Choose a well-defined and relevant social movement, with a clear connection to social justice.
   1. Examples include Black Lives Matter, transgender rights, reproductive justice, same-sex marriage, child protection, sexual exploitation, violence against women, disability rights, deinstitutionalization, Idle No More, prison abolition.
2. Research and analyse the history of this social justice movement:
   1. What were the origins and contextual factors particular to this movement?
   2. What were the conditions that led to the formation of this movement?
   3. What actions were taken to bring about change?
   4. What was the social work profession’s involvement in the movement? Clearly link the social work efforts the Canadian Association of Social Work’s Code of Ethics.
   5. What changes, if any, were brought about by the movement, considering both successes and limitations? Clearly identify the impact at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. These words are defined in the textbook.

• Topic 1:   
  • After your initial search, you may add additional search terms to narrow or focus your search. You might add, AND 
• Topic 2: 
  • After your initial search, you may add additional search terms to narrow or focus your search. You might add terms such as Canada
• Topic 3: 
  • After your initial search, you may add additional search terms or alter your search. AND history

Search Terms & Keywords

Keywords are the most important words for the research portion of your assignment. These are the main words that you will use when describing the information you need to find in the library and on the Internet.

For example:

• “black lives matter” [not BLM]
• transgender rights [not as phrase]
  • LGBTQ [best to use acronym]
• reproductive justice
  • reproductive rights
• “same-sex marriage”
• child protect* [for child protection & child protective]
• sexual exploitation
• violence women [for violence against women]
• disabilit* rights [for disability rights]
• deinstitutionalization
• “idle no more"
• truth reconciliation Canada
• prison* abolition [do not use with search SU]

You can think of different keywords for each of these topics, some will be more specific and some more broad. This is important because people who write about these ideas may use different words to talk about the same ideas. See below for some ideas to get you started.

Generate Synonyms & Similar Ideas

Use this example to help you think of different keywords for your topic. These example topics are related to contemporary social issues:

• Synonyms: women OR female OR girls; "domestic violence" OR "domestic abuse"
• Different spellings: child, children, childhood could be searched as child*
• Similar ideas: "social rights" OR "social movement"; transgender OR LGBTQ; "reproductive rights" OR "reproductive justice"
• Narrower terms: Canada --> Kelowna; minorities --> "indigenous people"
• Broader terms: "black lives matter" --> "social justice movement"

Refer to a search engine, thesaurus, or even Wikipedia for ideas on synonyms

Use keywords to find reliable sources. Evaluate all sources according to the information in this guide.

To research each of term paper elements required for your social issue, add: AND rights OR movement AND ("social justice" OR "social change" OR "social action") AND "social work"

Examples of problematic research questions

Improve Search Results

Database search techniques

* is the truncation symbol, it searches for variations of your term. For example: run* will return: run, running, runner, runners

" " around more than one word will search it as a phrase. For example "mental health"

Boolean Operators

AND - Use the word AND when you want to combine search terms (this will reduce the number of items found). For example: physical fitness AND students will find articles that discuss physical fitness and students.

OR - Use the word OR when you are searching for a topic that may have different names (this will expand the number of items found).For example: physical fitness OR exercise OR physical education will find articles with any of these words.

NOT - Use the word NOT when you want to exclude certain terms from your results. For example: qualitative NOT mixed methods will find articles that talk about qualitative research but exclude any that are mixed methods.

Too few sources?

• You need to expand your search
• Expand a search term by using synonyms (ie. exercise OR  physical activity OR walking OR movement)
• Decrease your number of search terms/concepts to broaden your search (ie. Canada AND poverty AND children --> Canada AND poverty)
• Try broader or more general search terms (ie. flooding --> natural disaster)
• Try truncating search terms to find alternate endings (ie. Canad* = Canadian, Canada, Canadians, Canadiana, etc.)
• Turn OFF the "available in OC collection" limiter in OCtopus and order books and articles by interlibrary loan (free)

Too many sources?

• You need to narrow your search
• Add additional concepts to your search (physical activity AND health AND seniors AND british columbia)
• Choose subject headings as your search type
• Use quotes around multiple search terms and phrases ("vigorous physical activity" AND health)
• Select specific article types (magazine, academic, etc.)
• Limit your search by language, age group, current years, etc. ("physical activity" AND health AND (elder OR senior)

Narrowing a Topic

The provided topics for this assignment are quite broad: searching for each in OCtopus returns a lot of results. It may be useful to narrow your topic to something more manageable. Some ways you can do that are:

• Focusing on a specific location or time period in relation to your topic
• Reading briefly about the topic in background sources (like encyclopedias) to learn about more specific aspects that you can write about
• Finding out if there is a specific controversy in the news about the topic

You might find that a narrowed topic you decide on does not have enough written on it; you may have to alter your topic as a result.

Other Tips

• Use the limiters on the sidebar of results pages. Example: Date, language, resource type, etc.
• Search for terms in a specific field, such as title, author, or subject. Example: "Global hunger"[ti]
• Subject Headings: Construct a search using only subject headings, or a combination of SH and keywords.
• Scan results: Use subject headings, keywords, and phrases found in existing results.
• Research the Author: Find an interesting author? Sea.ch for more articles or look for their website
• Reuse References/Citations: Find a relevant source? Examine the bibliography, reference list, citations and footnotes for sources used by the author. Use OCtopus or the e-journal finder to find the same articles.

Subject headings

Pre-set tags or descriptors assigned to resources/items to describe their content, or what they are about. Enables more precise searching.Similar to # used with Social Media.

• Eliminates the need to search multiple phrases and synonyms for the same concept. 
• Databases often provide a thesaurus, or index, of the subject headings used.
• SHs appear in both the Library catalogue and databases.

Use citations and reference lists to find more resources

Find a relevant source and then use citations to locate more related sources. Examine the bibliography, reference list and footnotes for sources used by the author. Use OCtopus or the e-journal finder to find your articles.