ENC 1101 - Professor Martinson: Researching Social Problems

Brainstorm the causes and effects of a local social problem. These are some suggestions but you are not limited to these ideas:

• women's rights

• intellectual freedom

• book banning

• hunger

• education

• housing

• transportation

• conservation

• environmentalism

• misinformation/disinformation

• healthcare

• euthanasia

• food desert/access to healthy food

• cycle of poverty

• elderly needs

• inequality

• lack of infrastructure

• the government

• mental health

• PTSD

• politics

• recycling

• etc.

Now, think of synonymous terms for your topic and combine them with OR. Wikipedia may be helpful for finding terms. Use quotation marks to keep phrases together. Here are some examples: 

homelessness OR unhoused OR "housing first" 

poverty OR poor OR "low income" OR  "low socioeconomic status" OR "low SES" 

"public transportation" OR Citrus Connection

___

And now consider the geography, both local Polk County and throughout Florida. For example: 

"Polk County" OR Lakeland OR "Winter Haven"

Florida OR Orlando OR Jacksonville OR Miami 

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Lastly, organize the two ideas in parenthesis and combine with AND. For example, if I was doing a local newspaper search on homelessness, I might focus geographically on local areas: 

(homelessness OR unhoused OR "housing first") AND ("Polk County" OR Lakeland OR "Winter Haven")

If the search is in a database for journal articles, like Academic Search Complete, it might be helpful to search for anything pertaining to Florida, so I might search:

(homelessness OR unhoused OR "housing first") AND (Florida OR Orlando OR Jacksonville OR Miami)

You must log in to use library databases and eBooks. When prompted to log in, enter your Passport credentials. 

If you have trouble, try resetting your Passport pin, sending an email to HelpDeskRequests@polk.edu, or calling the Help Desk at 863.292.3652. 

You can also get help from Ask a Librarian. 

Newspaper sources: (search for your issue and how it relates to poverty). You can also do a separate search for your organization and the work they do regarding poverty. 

How to cite a newspaper article in MLA format (Article in a Newspaper)

Journals/Magazines: (these are good for getting an overview of your topic)

Linking to your ChatGPT conversation

You will need to create a free account in ChatGPT in order to share a link to your past conversation. If you do not wish to do this, please talk with your professor for an alternative means of showing your conversation (perhaps through a screenshot).

1. Make sure you are signed in to ChatGPT

2. Click on "Share" in the upper right corner

3. A pop-up will appear titled "Share public link to chat." Click on "Create link" 

Note: Conversation added after the link is created will not be shared via this link. If you add conversation and wish to include it, click on "Share" again to create a new link. 

In-text citation example: To begin research for this paper, ChatGPT was consulted to gather synonymous terms for the cycle of poverty ("Synonymous terms"). 

Works Cited Template (without handing indent)

"Description of prompt" prompt. AITool in Italics, name version, company that made tool, content generation date. Exact/general URL. 

Works Cited Example (without handing indent)

"Synonymous terms for the cycle of poverty" prompt. ChatGPT, GPT-4 version, OpenAI, 20 Nov. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/673df117-e04c-800e-842a-678e9a237e56.

Step 1: Understand the assignment

Step 2: Select your topic (or use the one assigned to you)

Step 3: Initial planning, investigation, and outlining

Step 4: Accumulate Research

Step 5: Make a final outline to guide writing

Step 6: Write the paper

Step 7: Revise and Proofread