How to Use (and Search) This Collection

The Complete Overview & Synopsis Table: all 80 papers at a glance

The place to start is always the Complete Overview & Synopsis Table. This displays every paper’s file name in context. It serves as a list, a sorting mechanism and cross-referencing. Plus it gives a headline summary and our custom-written synopsis of under 100 words for every document. For instance, you can search by document type (speech, article, book chapter, case, and so on); scan dates to find the most recent writings or papers from a particular period that interests you; skim the customised file names for informative document identifiers, while still seeing the original in-document title so you know you’ve got the right paper.

→Go to Complete Overview & Synopsis Table - PDF version

→Go to Complete Overview & Synopsis Table - Excel version

Table of Key Themes and Best Paper(s) on Each – an easy way into the collection

The alphabetical Table of Key Themes and Best Papers on Each works like an index of main topics as well as being a way into the collection for anyone. It lists some two dozen themes which McElrea’s papers came back to repeatedly and sends you to the paper(s) that addressed each most squarely, and usually most recently. This saves you combing through the approximately 800 pages in the whole collection to find the topic. Although these best statements aren’t the last word, even if you read only the key papers they refer to you will get the gist of many main points.

→Go to Table of Key Themes & Best Paper(s) on Each

How (and where) to search on keywords, with examples

To search the whole collection for a keyword, first skim to check whether that word or a related topic is in the alphabetical Table of Key Themes & Best Paper(s) on Each. Next, search the Complete Overview & Synopsis Table by hitting control + F and typing in a word that describes your current interest, e.g., “punishment”, “Sentencing Act” or “youth”. The search box which pops up in the top right will show you how many times that exact word appears and where. Clicking on the up and down arrows will take you to the previous or next occurrence, respectively. Make your word as generic and truncated or short as possible: for instance, the truncated form “prosecut” will capture more than “prosecute”, “prosecution” or “prosecutor”, and “environment” brings up more hits than “environmental”. Try synonyms: for instance “education” (or the truncation “educat”) as well as “school”.

We are hoping to upgrade search functionality in the future so you can search the full text of the whole McElrea site.

→Go back to the McElrea restorative justice home page