IR 210, International Relations: Introductory Analysis

Beyond Google: Basic Tools for Research in International Relations

Since this is the first required course for IR majors and minors, we want to prepare you for future research and give you a chance to explore academic journals, government documents, books, websites, and search engines that will help you do your own research. You can do most of this exercise from the comfort of your own room, but we would like you to consider visiting the libraries at USC, in downtown LA, or even at UCLA. We expect you to go BEYOND GOOGLE AND GOOGLE SCHOLAR. There are other search engines. You will be graded on the quality of your sources and the diversity of those sources. Use proper citations and NO WIKIPEDIA!

This exercise has several goals:

• Introduce you to the wide variety of scholarly research and media resources available to you through the USC Libraries that are either not available through Google and Google Scholar or may be there, but are inaccessible.
• Learn about research strategies applied specifically to discovering theoretical and applied knowledge in the field of international relations and how that knowledge is organized and made accessible.
• Learn how to properly cite materials and, under the edict of needing to cite research in order to conduct research, understand the differences between authoritative, academic sources and popular or biased sources.
• Gain an understanding of how to conduct college-level research that can be applied to other coursework in international relations or any other courses you take at USC.