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HIST 301: Historian's Craft (Homza, Spring 2025)

Steps when looking for peer reviewed sources

1) Write out your topic

2) Identify key words

3) Identify synonyms

4) write out the search using Boolean

5) After your first search, revise terms

Examples

What was the role of Christianity in the lives of Children in pre-reformation England?

  • Christian, Christianity, religion, Catholicism
  • Children, child, families
  • England, Britain
  • Pre-reformation, Catholic, Tudor, Middle Ages

("middle ages" OR medieval) AND (children OR childhood) AND (catholic* OR christianity) AND England

Revised search

(children OR childhood) AND (catholic*) AND England AND history

If still not finding many results, look in WorldCat and other subject databases (ex ATLA)