Meet Your Librarian!
Tisch Library
Tufts University
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Medford, MA 02155
Handy Handouts!
- Four Steps to Help You Move from Developing a Topic to Writing an EssayThis handout outlines the four steps: identify a topic; find background information; gather evidence; and develop your argument/write your essay.
- Solving an Information ProblemThis handout outlines the types of information you need to complete each of the four steps and tells you where to find it.
- Practice Your Skills!Use this worksheet to help you understand the questions you need to ask--and answer--about your research.
The BEAM Method
Welcome to the Tisch Library guide for English 2: Other Worlds. See below for a description of the contents of each page in this guide.
Remember, research and writing are tasks best undertaken together! The BEAM Model provides us with a way to think about sources based on how they can be used in your paper.
About the Contents
Getting to Know Your Topic - This page helps you to get started doing your research and answers the question, "What do you do if you can't cite Wikipedia?" Find sources on this page that provide short introductions to a variety of topics and that will help you to generate keywords before you start to search library databases.
Use Subject-Specific Databases - This page includes recommended databases for this class. Keep in mind that article databases don't always include complete copies of the articles they cite, so click the Find it at Tufts button to see if we have an electronic copy.
Use JumboSearch - Use the Tufts' Libraries discovery tool to find books and articles, including the millions of print books, eBooks, scholarly journal articles, and articles from newspapers and magazines that you have access to.
Evaluating Information - This guide will help you to evaluate the variety of resources you will encounter while doing academic research and will help you to recognize different sources and types of information. Keep in mind that the most important question to ask yourself when evaluating information is "Who wrote it?" When we talk about "authoritative" information, the key part of that word is "author." Once you know who wrote something, you can be a better judge of the nature of that information.
Cite Your Sources - Learn how to properly cite your research and discover some tools that can help you to manager your citations.
Ask Us - Get more help!
More about Dreams and Sleep
Below you'll find some some interesting web-based resources on sleep and dreams, including sample audio and video projects that can help you to better understand this topic and its many aspects.
- UCI Podcast: The perils and benefits of dream incubationIn this podcast, Sara Mednick, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University of California-Irvine, discusses how dream incubation works and how sleep keeps people healthy.
- Podcast #11: DreamsFrom George Washington University's Brainy Bunch podcast series, Eileen McKenna explores the neuroscience of dreams.
- These Sleep Engineers Could Help You Hack Your DreamsA group at MIT’s Media Lab known as the “Dream Team” thinks you can harness your unconscious mind with tech you can wear to bed.
- Why do we dream?Watch this animated TED-Ed video to give you a quick overview of the major psychological theories about dreams.
- Sweet Dreams: The Science of SleepFrom the University of Washington's School of Medicine’s 2014 Mini-Medical School series.
- International Association for the Study of DreamsThe "the world’s premier dream organization" dedicated to the study of dreams. Includes links to research, book lists, and more on the many aspects of dreaming.
- International Journal of Dream ResearchThis is an online repository for original dream-related research articles from different parts of the world.