【正文】 ws stories and feature articles in the New York Times. National Newspaper Index covers the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Canadian News Index provides citations to the major newspapers in Canada. Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature indexes the contents of popular magazines. Essay and General Literature Index lists essays and articles published in books. Most subject areas have their own specialized indexes, such as Art Index, Business Periodicals Index, Education Index, General Science Index, Humanities Index, Index to Legal Periodicals, Philosopher’s Index, and Social Sciences Index. Bibliographies. Bibliographies are lists of related publications and other materials. Serial bibliographies in specific disciplines include Bibliography of Agriculture, Bibliography and Index of Geology, and MLA International Bibliography (for the field of language and literature). Bibliographic Index contains citations to bibliographies that are published as books or pamphlets, as parts of books, or in periodicals. (For sample citations from a bibliography. Collections of abstracts. Abstracts are summaries of journal articles and other literature. Collections of abstracts include Biological Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, Historical Abstracts, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Physics Abstracts, Psychological Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts. Summaries of doctoral dissertations are available in Dissertation Abstracts International. Guides to research. There are guides intended to direct you to the most important sources of information and scholarship in the area you are researching. Whereas indexes, bibliographies, and collections of abstracts tend to strive for prehensiveness and objectivity in presenting information, guides to research are usually selective and evaluative. Some research guides cover entire fields, such as James ’s Literary Research Guide (3rd ed. [New York: MLA, 1998] )。 the topic “violence in the media” could likewise be narrowed to “the effects of cartoon violence on preschool children.” When you begin to focus on a topic, you should consult library materials and other information resources to see whether enough work has been done on the subject to permit adequate research and whether the pertinent source materials are readily accessible. 2. Conducting Research The Modern Academic Library Since most of your research papers will draw on the published work of experts, your should bee thoroughly acquainted with the libraries available to you. The modern academic library typically offers researchers both print and electronic resources, like bibliographic and fulltext databases, as well as puter services, such as word processing, highquality printers, and access to the Inter. Many libraries have programs of orientation and instruction to meet the needs of all students, formbeginning researchers to graduate students. Ask about introductory pamphlets or handbooks, guided tours, lectures, and courses on using the library. Be sure to take full advantage of the services your library provides. Nearly allpublic and academic libraries have desks staffed by professional reference librarians who can tell you about available instructional programs and help you locate sources. Consulting a librarian at key points in your research may save your considerable time and effort. Often librarians also prepare and hand out informative bulletins that describe library resources and services. The Central Information System A typical academic library provides an online central information system to serve students and faculty members engaged in research. The system ordinarily includes the library’s catalog of holdings (books, serials, electronic publications, audiovisual materials, and so forth)。 or carrying out a laboratory experiment. Primary sources include statistical data, historical documents, and works of literature or art. Secondary research is the examination of studies that other researchers have made of a subject. Examples of secondary sources are books and articles about political issues, historical events, scientific debates, or literary works. Most academic papers depend at least partly on secondary research. No matter what your subject of study, learning to investigate, review, and productively use information, ideas, and opinions of other researchers will play a major role in your development as a student. The sorts of activities that constitute a research paper identifying, locating, assessing, and assimilating other’s research and then developing and expressing your own ideas clearly and persuasively are at the center of the educational experience. A research paper is a form of written munication. Like other kinds of nonfiction writingletters,