When researching legislation, policies, and issues related to gender and sexuality, it’s important to use a mix of scholarly language and everyday terms. This will help you locate both academic sources (from databases) and credible public sources (such as government sites, nonprofits, or policy think tanks).
Tips for Searching in Databases (EKU Libraries):
- Start with scholarly terms connected to class concepts (e.g., reproductive justice, workplace equity, gender discrimination, transgender health care, intersectionality).
- Use Boolean operators to refine your searches:
- AND narrows your results (e.g., transgender AND healthcare)
- OR broadens your results (e.g., childcare OR daycare)
- NOT excludes terms (e.g., wage gap NOT sports)
- Use quotation marks to keep phrases together: “reproductive rights”
- Try the asterisk (*) as a wildcard to capture variations: feminis* (feminism, feminist, feminists)
- Explore the Subject Terms or Descriptors in databases; these often lead you to more precise scholarly vocabulary.
Tips for Searching Beyond the Databases:
- Use plain language when looking for policy and legislation (e.g., Kentucky childcare policy, Title IX updates, paid parental leave law).
- Look at .gov, .org, and reputable .edu sources for credible information on policies and their impact.
- Use official sites like Congress.gov or state legislative websites to track bills, sponsors, and summaries.
- Advocacy organizations often provide policy briefs and summaries—these can give useful context, but balance them with scholarly research.
Bringing It Together:
Since your assignment asks for a persuasive letter, you’ll want to:
- Use scholarly research to back up your claims with evidence.
- Use current policy sources to show relevance and urgency.
- Paraphrase findings into accessible, everyday language rather than academic jargon.
