The sources of information you use for an essay or written assignment are critical to successfully tackling the topic.  The sources you use should:

• usually be from refereed professional journals (academic journals) and books
• be relevant to your topic
• include the most recent publications in the field
• will often be specified by your lecturer

To find good sources you need to be able to:

• search the library catalogue to find books, journals, e-journals and databases
  
  
• use databases specific to your discipline
  
  
• use academic search websites such as Google Scholar
  

To use databases and websites to find relevant articles you need to be able to:

• identify search terms:  keywords and limiters to search on
• use Boolean operators (“and”, “or”) to combine search terms
• successively refine your search terms based on your prior search results