Purpose of this Discussion: To help prepare you to integrate research into your paper, and to access the Library Databases to find acceptable critical, peer-reviewed sources and credit the sources correctly within your text. 

Read: “How to Access Miami Dade Databases” in your Module 3 Resources folder. Another site to find what you need is Google Scholar, but too often access to those articles require payment. Do not use plain Google. The Miami Dade Databases is your best source. Contact a reference librarian at one of the campuses if you are having trouble logging on. Wolfson Campus library telephone number: 305-237-3144

Find Two Articles: In the Library Databases find two articles, one concerning Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee and one concerning apartheid or South African history.

Prompt: 1. Write a few sentences or a paragraph, integrating a quote, paraphrase, or summary from either of the articles. 2. Document your paragraph with either a signal phrase or a parenthetical in-text citation. 

• Example of a signal phrase:  “According to Joe Doe, from Liberal Arts University…”  If it is from a print source, add the page number in parentheses. Web sources require no page number. When the author’s name is not mentioned in the paragraph’s signal phrase, add it in parentheses, as in the following example: Example of an in-text citation:  (Coetzee 102). Your MLA Resources folder also has information and a sample paper.

M1: How to Access the Miami Dade College M1: How to Access the Miami Dade CollegeDatabasesDatabases

How fo access the Miami dade College Database:

Why am I sending you to the Miami Dade College databases?  Because Googling your topic will take you to too many unacceptable sources.  Most of what’s in the Miami Dade Database will be acceptable. If you don’t feel you’ve found what you were looking for in the MDC site, you may try Google Scholar or any other university library databases, but you may find those require a fee.

Make sure to read the page titled “Evaluating Sources” and/or the section on “Evaluating Sources” under the Research tab, pg. 416 of Rules for Writers, 8th Edition. Those will keep you from choosing wrong sources, no matter where you find the articles and sources that you want to use.

How to access the Miami Dade College database: Begin by going to the Miami Dade College home page menu on the left > Libraries > Databases A to Z.

Or go directly to this link:  www.mdc.edu/learning-resources/libraries/     

Anyone with an Internet connection can search for library materials online. You must connect to the databases by using your valid Borrower ID and PIN which is your MDC student or employee number. Your Borrower ID is your MDC student/employee number, and your PIN (unless you change it) is the last 4 digits of your MDC student/employee number.