LibGuides: Applied Ethics: CTAP

Critical Thinking CTAP

Step 1

Locate the CTAP assignment distributed by your professor. Review the presented scenario and the questions that need to be answered. What is the central ethical issue? What are the main moral issues in the case?

Step 2

Think of keywords related to the information you want to find. What kind of information does your decision maker need to make a decision? What keywords describe the central ethical issue of the case? What are some synonyms for these keywords?

Step 3

Conduct a search using the suggested sources or another library database.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Academic Search Complete, designed specifically for academic institutions, is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Funded by: Statewide Allocation
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Connect to Google Scholar through this link to locate articles available in the SPC databases. Available articles will include the notation "Find @ SPC" in the result list.

Step 4

What types of information are available? Did you retrieve enough results? Too many results? Refine your search strategy as needed.

Step 5

Evaluate the sources. (See "Evaluating Sources" tab)

Step 6

Cite your sources. (See "Citing Sources" tab)

Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Academic Search Complete, designed specifically for academic institutions, is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Funded by: Statewide Allocation
Gale E-Books This link opens in a new window This product offers more than 85 reference sources including encyclopedias, series and more, allowing libraries to provide respected authoritative essays on varied topics from numerous subject areas. Users can search across a single eBook or an entire eBook collection. Funded by: College and Statewide
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Search Tips

Use 1 or 2 keywords and search terms instead of long sentences or a question.
When your search includes a phrase, such as "solar energy," put "quotation marks" around the words that make up the phrase.
Use Boolean operators (and, or, not) to connect, expand, or exclude keywords. See this video for more details on Boolean operators.
For academic-related material on the Web, remember, more reliable and acceptable information is often found at sites ending in .gov and .edu. Domains ending in .com are usually out to market something, and domains ending in .org often have an agenda so more bias can frequently exist.