Welcome to Joyner Library. We're here to help you get the most out of the library's resources as you move through ENGL 3810 online. If you need help at any time do not hesitate to Ask a Librarian.
This online rhetoric, provided by Dr. Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University, is a guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric. The site is intended "to help beginners, as well as experts, make sense of rhetoric, both on the small scale (definitions and examples of specific terms) and on the large scale (the purposes of rhetoric, the patterns into which it has fallen historically as it has been taught and practiced for 2000+ years)."
Finding Books:
From the library homepage at go into the Catalog, and begin with a "General Keyword" search.
Be sure to use the Search Tips listed below.
Note the title of the book, the collection, and call number, as in this example:
Amatter of style : on writing and technique / by Matthew Clark
COLLECTION
CALL NO.
AVAILABILITY
Joyner Stacks
PE1421 .C56 2002
checked in
Search Tips :
Boolean operators:
AND: narrows by combining terms
OR: expands by allowing more choices
Other Search Tips:
* searches any variant spelling (child* gives child's, children, children's)
? replaces any single character ( wom?n gives women or woman)
The catalog DOES NOT search determiners (a, the, an) or prepositions, except within phrases
I want to see some examples of essays -- how can I find some?
In the library'scatalog, search by General Keyword, using strategies such as:
essays AND politics
essays AND religion
How can I see the book?
If you are able to come into Joyner Library, use the call number charts on the wall by the stairs to determine on which floor books with those call numbers will be found. Floor plans are available online. Students living in Pitt County, even if taking courses online, will have to visit the library personally to check out books. If you are a distance learning student living outside of Pitt County, you can ask that books be mailed to you.
Are there books available full-text electronically?
The library has an increasing number of book titles available electronically. NetLibrary, for example, is a collection of books from various publishers that are available in electronic format. As an ECU student, you have access to a collection of more than 30,000 reference, scholarly and professional books. These are available by searching the library's catalog. For more information.
Finding Articles:
Good Starting Points
To search for an article on a particular subject, click on Find Articles on the library homepage. This page lists and provides access to the many article databases that Joyner Library subscribes to. Most of these databases contain thousands of full-text articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers in addition to citations to thousands more. This can be overwhelming! In fact, for most topics in this class you can find excellent materials by starting with the Getting Started databases -- so try these first. Perhaps start with Proquest Research Library, which indexes College English, as well as some other important journals.
For this class you may be writing an argumentation or position paper. To find material on controversial topics consider using one of the Getting Started databases called CQ Researcher.
For an expository essay, in which you may need to acquaint your reader with a body of knowledge, you may want to use books and/or articles, and perhaps even add some newspaper articles to the mix. You can get access to newspaper articles (many full-text online) by choosing from our list of newspaper databases.
Article databases are licensed to (currently registered) ECU students, faculty and staff. If you are on campus when you access them you'll go right through, but if you are off campus when you attempt to access them you will be asked for your Pirate ID and password." This is the same user ID and password you use for "OneStop" or Blackboard." If you have any problems accessing databases remotely, see our How DoI page.
If it’s not full-text: Find It!
How can I see articles?
Many of our databases include the full text of articles. In some cases, though, the full text of an article may not be available online in the database you are using due to publishers' restrictions or the prohibitive cost of providing them online. Increasingly, when you search for articles in the library'sdatabases you will see the button on your results list or on the screen showing the citation/abstract of the article.
Serial Solutions is a service offered by Joyner and Laupus Libraries that allows you, at the click of a button, to go from an article citation in one database to a full text copy of that article in another, or to see if a particular article or specific journal is available in full text electronic format. It also allows you to find out if that journal is available in print at either Joyner or Laupus.
What if the article I want is not available full-text online?
If the article is not available online, you can check the Joyner Library catalog or the Laupus Health Sciences catalog to see if it is held in printed form. Thebutton does this for you automatically from within databases. If you live within Pitt County you would need to come to the library to make a copy of the article. If you are a distance learning student living outside of Pitt County, you can have articles copied and sent to you, using Interlibrary Lending.
Citation Linker: If you already have a citation from someone else’s bibliography and want to find out if we have that article, key it into the Citation Linker. When you click the Find IT! Button at the bottom of the page, you will generate an menu of options that works like the one described above.
A Word About Using Web Sites for Your Research.........
Many instructors advise you to use the Web wisely and with discernment, because the Web has much that is valuable, but also some material that may not be as authoritative as the instructor prefers you to use for your research. Here are some principles for evaluating what you find on the Web.
