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France and the United States Through the Eyes of the Other: Finding Information

This guide offer resources to connect you to American and France's impressions of each other, the values of the two countries, and unite them and separate them and how their cultures intersect.

Reliable vs Non-Reliable

You may find sources in the Internet or in your university library's catalog, no matter where you look, always evaluate a source.

Currency: 

  • Is the information current enough for your needs?
  • When was it published?

Reliability:

  • Is the information based on fact or opinion?
  • Are the claims supported by facts and trustable data?
  • Is the information well-balanced, objective, and non-biased? 
  • Does the author attribute sources?

Authority:

  • Who is the author?
  • What is the affiliation of the author?
  • What are the credentials?
  • What publishing house supports the publication?

Accuracy:

  • Is the article/book peer-reviewed?
  • Do you see grammatical errors?
  • Does it look legitimate?
  • Does the author provides contact information?

Purpose: 

  • What is the intent of the work?
  • What is the domain of a website?
  • Who is the target audience?

Background Search

When looking for information, your first step is to find background information to have an overview of the topic. Background sources will connect you to essential terms associated with the subject matter, dates, names, and other information that will help refine your search. You can find background information in works of reference, general and subject-specific encyclopedias, dictionaries, and even textbooks.

 

A reading of interest:
Insdorf, Annette. “French Films, American Style.” The New York Times, 28 July 1985. EBSCOhost, discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=11631d05-205d-3ca8-a9b5-403162dd3318.

Linking Your Search Terms

Image shows search terms france AND United States AND américanisation de la france

Boolean Searching Tips

Boolean Operator Example What It Does
AND (ET) vins français ET “le commerce"e” Narrows your search
OR (OU) “industrie du vin” OU l’industrie vinicole Broadens your search
NOT (SAUF) France SAUF Chile Weeds out unhelpful stuff
"Quotation Marks" "américanisation de la france" Searches an exact phrase, those words in that order
* (Asterisk)

américan*

(Will include possibilities like: américanisation, américanisme)

 Includes all possible word ending variations
 
A reading of interest:
Hulkower, NealD. “The Judgment of Paris According to Borda.” Journal of Wine Research, vol. 20, no. 3, Nov. 2009, pp. 171–82. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/09571260903451029.

Working With Your Keywords

  • L'Amérique ET modèle ET France NOT Latine
  •  américanisation ET identités nationales
  • Jazz ET France
  • Tintin ET Amérique
  • Anti- Americanism AND France
  • violences policières ET Black life matter ET manifestation OU George Floyd
  • Adama Traoré AND Malian immigrants AND police
  • Atlantique ET France ET états-unis
  • "vins français"  ET États-Unis
  • Jazz AND Paris OR France
  • French influence AND US OR United States
  • French-American AND identity OR politics
  • laïcité AND France AND différence AND États-Unis
  • Marine Le Pen AND Trump ET rhétorique populiste 
  • Midnight in Paris AND Hemingway AND postmodernism