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Agriculture 160: Plant Science

This Research Guide provides information about agriculture and plant science resources found in the CCCC libraries and online.

Create a Research Proposal

Take it step by step... 


An image of a magnifying glass.  1. Determine your topic.

There are hundreds of thousands of articles on plant growth in the library's agriculture resources. In order to make your searches more effective, you need to determine what aspect of plant growth you want to research.

Learn about different sub-topics in plant growth, find background information related to cultivation and breeding, and identify subtopics you want to explore in your paper using CQ Researcher.


An image of quote marks.  2. Create a Citation.

Make sure you're using the appropriate citation style!  Purdue OWL's citation guide link will open in a new window can help you with formatting questions.


An image of a face with glasses.3. Evaluate the Authority.

Who are the authors?  Do they have the expertise to be writing on this topic? Check out this guide's Evaluation section link will open in a new window for more information on this.


An image of three people.4. Identify the Audience

Was the article or book written for scholars or a general audience with little in-depth knowledge of the topic? How does the audience affect the information? This guide's Evaluation section link will open in a new window can help you here, too!


An image of a speech bubble.5. Find the Conversation.

How do the articles or books you're citing fit together?  Do they reference one another?  Do they form a dialog or conversation?


An image of a light bulb.6. Make the Connection.

Determine how each article or book sheds new light on your topic.  What information do you learn from each resource that you didn't have before?


Putting it all together...

Put all these pieces together into a summary of each article or book you're citing.  Your summaries, or annotations, should be about 150 words in length.

If you need help with any step along the way, talk to your instructor or schedule an appointment with a Librarian using the button below.


For more help with your citations, check out the recommended resources below...

Library Lingo

An image of quote marks.

 

Citation: A quote from another authors' work. You will formally cite a passage from another work in your paper, and include information about how to find that work in your work cited list or bibliography. A correctly formatted citation lets your instructor or readers know how to find any article, book, movie, or other resource that you've quoted or referenced in your paper.

 


An image of a magnifying glass

 

Research: the process of the gathering information that can serve as evidence to back up an argument.  Good research may not confirm the expectations of you have about your topic when you start out.

 

 

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

This video from the Kimbel Library at Coastal Carolina University link will open in a new window will help explain what an Annotated Bibliography is, and how to write one.

Cite with RefWorks

Cite it!ProQuest RefWorks logo

Use the Library's RefWorks tool to help build an Annotated Bibliography.  Save articles, create citations, take notes in your digital documents, and develop your annotations all in one place!

Step 1: Create an Account

  1. Go to Summon link will open in a new window
  2. Click "RefWorks Log In" on the top right corner of the screen
  3. Click "No account? - Sign up here" below the "Sign In" button
  4. Enter your cccc.edu or cougarmail.cccc.edu email account and create a password
  5. Check your email and click the activation link
  6. Follow the instructions on RefWorks to complete your registration

Cite it!ProQuest RefWorks logo

Use the Library's RefWorks tool to help build an Annotated Bibliography.  Save articles, create citations, take notes in your digital documents, and develop your annotations all in one place!

Step 2: Save Articles

Clicking on this image of the Library's Summon Search bar will take you to the search bar on the library's home page.  This link will open in a new window.

1. Perform a search in Summon.

An image of the Summon results page menu bar with the RefWorks log In link highlighted.

2. If you are not already logged in to RefWorks, click on the RefWorks Log In link in the upper right hand corner of the Summon results page. This will open a new page where you can log in using your Cougarmail email address and your RefWorks password.

An image of an article in a Summon result list with an arrow pointing to the RefWorks save icon.

3. Return to your Summon Search. Find an article you want to save for later. Click on the icon of the “plus sign” over the folder that appears next to the article in your Summon search results list.

An image of the article appearing in a list of saved articles within RefWorks.

4.The article is now saved to your Refworks account!

Return to your RefWorks account anytime, from any device, to access the article, annotate it, or create a citation for it.

Help!

An image of a Question Mark to designate the "Help" box.Need a little extra help?

Contact your librarian. 

Or use the links below to get more in-depth help and information.