COURSE STRUCTURE
Within your assignments you will be expected to draw upon relevant material from the lectures and readings/videos related to the particular topic.
Equally as importantly, you are expected to draw upon sources drawn from your own individual research into the academic literature. This should primarily involve the retrieval and use of material from books, book chapters, and journal articles. For each assignment you are expected to use a minimum of THREE additional academic sources derived from your individual research (Note: these three additional sources do not include the required assignment readings).
We are extremely fortunate to have an excellent library at UMD, unfortunately many students rarely, if ever, use the library resources at their disposal. Before embarking on a search for sources, you need to be clear about the focus of your chosen question. From this you will derive some keywords which will aid your seach (i.e. if you are doing a question which broadly focuses on sport, gender, and the media, then you should use these as your primary search terms).
The following is meant as an introductory guide to your library search.
i. Books and Book Chapters:
There are literally millions of books in library, hence the use of search engines is vital when looking to retrieve relevant sources. The UMD Library Catalogue should be your starting place for book searches. Once you have developed a list of potential books, you then need to go to the library, to ascertain whether or not they are relevant to your focus (and if indeed they are, then you can check them out). Actually visiting the library, and seeing books in the vicinity of the ones you have identified often unearths sources you have not come across in the library catalogue (I think this is called serendipity).
ii. Journal Articles:
The UMD library also possesses sizeable academic journal holdings, most of which can be accessed through Research Port. This gateway into the libraries electronic holdings allow you to search entire databases, as well as specific academic journals (for instance, you could search a database of specific journal for "sport and gender and media").
While sport related articles appear in many of the thousands of electronic journals held by the university, there are a number of academic journals, specifically focused on sport, which you should probably carry out individual searches on. These include:
Journal of Sport & Social Issues
Sociology of Sport Journal
International Review for the Sociology of Sport
Sport & Society (formerly Culture, Sport & Society)
Journal of Sport Management
Sporting Traditions
Journal of Sport Economics
Journal of Sport History
Sport History Review
The Sports Historian
International Journal of Sport History
Quest
iii. Major Magazines and Newspapers
These can also be searched through Research Port, with many having full electronic access. However, care should be taken not to overly rely upon such "popular" sources. They can be used to corroborate academic sources (i.e. academic books, book chapters, and journals), but should not be used instead of them!
iv. Websites and Webpages
All too frequently, student research for thematic essays revolves around "googling" their specific essay focus, and drawing solely upon the results of the search. While web search engines may unearth some useful sites, the majority of what they find is, to be frank, worthless (i.e. while web articles from The New York Times may have their uses, those from less reputable/credible outlets, individual pages, weblogs etc. should be avoided). So, be extremely carefully to assess the credibility of websites/webpages, and certainly do not over use them!
To reiterate, your individual research should focus on the retrieval and use of material drawn from academic sources (books, book chapters, and journal articles. Magazine and newspaper articles, and websites, should be used sparringly, and only as a means of corroborating academic sources.
The instructor and TAs for the course are here to assist you in researching and retrieving appropriate sources, so look to them for advice when embarking on your research, and have them evaluate the appropriateness of what you find.
