Topic: discussion topic

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discussion #4,

You have a paper due on Monday June 17 which is an Annotated Bibliography. Some of you may have not ever written an annotated bibliography. My focus for this weeks

discussion is to begin thinking about this paper and come up with a research topic for the paper (see below).

Come up with a research topic you can use for your annotated bibliography. Try and make it something that you are passionate about, no matter what your major or

discipline. Why did you choose this topic? What are you truly interested in?
Do you see a way that this interest could be integrated with your university experience to benefit you physically, or emotionally, or spiritually, or even enrich your

daily learning?
Please use this posting as a guide to help pick a topic that is specific for this paper. I will email each of you about your topic, be sure to look at the outline for

this assignment prior to entering your discussion posting.

Thank you
Module 4: Research Skills and Using a University Library

Introduction

Writing a research paper, and most of your university assignments in general, will require that you go beyond your personal knowledge and classroom learning to more

fully explore a specific topic of interest or to muster evidence to support a theory you wish propose. This involves methodical and focused searching of the vast and

various collections of knowledge already created about your topic of interest. Your discipline will determine the kinds of questions you ask, and the method of

research conducted in order to answer those questions, but there are some basic research skills that work across the board, no matter what your discipline.

Conducting research at the university level will require new research parameters, but you likely already have skills in place that will help you hone the research

skills necessary for academic work. For instance, the work you may have done in preparation for leasing a car, purchasing a home, or finding the right daycare centre

for your children, all required careful consideration of details after thorough and timely searching and researching. Everyone who uses Google does research, you just

don’t usually name it as such in your day-to-day life. Developing your research skills for university assignments begins with becoming familiar with the university’s

library. It should become the first resource you turn to when beginning a research project.

Important Note: As with the last module, we have gone to experts to get help with this module , Paula and Charlotte. Paule Cardozo is our Student Success Librarian,

and Charlotte Innerd is the Manager of Information & Reference Services. Both work in our Education Centre Library. They have offered to create a virtual research

orientation which would best introduce you to our library services and resources plus give you an assignment task which will integrate practical skills in research,

reading, writing and documentation.

Learning Outcomes

In this module you will

properly cite and credit authors and sources;
properly cite paraphrases or quotations to avoid plagiarism;
conduct research into a topic of your choice using various resources including books, periodicals and the internet;
critically evaluate the sources you discover in your research;
1. The Nipissing Education Centre Library

Libraries are all about information! Information comes in many forms. At the Nipissing library, there are books, journals in print, journals online and in print, DVDs,

CDs, kits, audio books, newspapers in print and online, image databases, microfilm and more! Just as with everything new, you will gain more familiarity with the

library as you advance in your studies. Even if you don’t have physical access to a university library, the e-books and academic journals available through our

library’s website are growing steadily and you can now do thorough research using your access to full-text articles in journal databases and using E-Resources. As

well, distance education learners have access to all the physical library materials, you just have to request things and they will be sent to you via courier!

Find out more about accessing library materials for distance education patrons, here:

http://www.eclibrary.ca/library/library-information-mainmenu-275/for-distance-ed-mainmenu-62
The Information Desk is one of the most important resources in the Library. The people who work on the Information Desk are there to help you use the Library. Things

that you can ask about: you can’t find a book on the shelf, not sure what database to use, not finding information on your topic, not sure which search terms to use,

and the list goes on. Remember that they want to help you!

If you don’t have physical access to the library you can always use the “Ask Us” feature on the website, and a librarian will get back to you with an answer to your

question:

http://www.eclibrary.ca/library/ask-us-mainmenu-322
2. Required Reading

Read Chapter 6, from your textbook, Keys to Success: Core Concepts.

3. Conducting Research Using the Library

Paula has prepared a PowerPoint presentation as an introduction to what is in the Library and how to find information.

View the presentation as a PDF file.
Take some time to explore the library’s website to become familiar with its layout and features:

http://www.eclibrary.ca
4. Evaluating Sources

A library and its resources are only useful insofar as they present possibilities for you to learn and to conduct your own research. But how do you know what is

appropriate and expected of you as a university student? As Paula and Charlotte mentioned in their PowerPoint presentation, most of your courses will require that you

conduct research, and the research material that you gather must be credible, reliable, rigorous, and professional. In order for your own work to stand up to scrutiny,

you have to use research material that you can verify is accurate, objective, original, and in line with the standards of academic excellence. This is why many of your

professors will require that your research come from “academic sources” rather than popular sources such as magazines, internet websites, or pamphlets.

For instance, while it may be totally acceptable to use Wikipedia to find out the time period of Jean Chretien’s Prime Minister-ship to settle an argument around the

dinner table, your academic work requires references to research material that has gone through reliable checks and balances, including a respected publishing house,

editors, a double-blind peer-review process for academic journals, your ability to determine the expertise of the author, etc.

Here is a video that identifies the differences between scholarly/academic sources and popular sources:

And here are some of the things you’ll want to ask yourself as you begin to gather material for a research project, as recommended by Cornell University Library:

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill26.htm
You might find it useful to print out the list developed by Cornell, and post it beside your computer or wherever you conduct your research.

5. Evaluating Web Sites

There is good information on the Internet, but there is also inaccurate information on the Internet. As discussed above in Evaluating Sources, you are being asked to

find information at an appropriate level for university courses. In many cases, using information from the Internet will NOT be acceptable. There are several reasons

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for this:

Most Google results will not provide academic research; you need a different approach
Wikipedia is not a reliable source because it is anonymous, and does not go through the peer-review process. It is a good place to learn introductory facts but it is

not written for an academic audience, and its objectivity is questionable. It is not usually complex enough to suit your purposes.
Often internet sources are anonymous or unknown, and credentials are unverifiable.
Often websites are connected to advertisers, which can impart bias on the information presented.
Often websites are written for a general audience, and therefore not specific or detailed enough for your research purposes.
When you do use the Internet, you must take the time to evaluate websites to insure that you have some idea of who is putting the information out there in order to

judge its suitability. Some things to ask your sources when conducting internet research include:

Is there an author? Who has put the page on the web?
Is it a known organization or institution? Take some time to find out about the organization. Clicking on “about” or following a link to the parent organization can

often do this. (This is important. I once found what seemed to be a promising site on black history which, on further investigation, turned out to be from a white

supremacist group!)
Look for sites that end in .org, .edu or that are university sites.

What is the date of the page? How old is it?
If it has not been updated in a long time, you should be concerned that no one is looking after the site.

Does the site look professional or home made?
If someone is concerned about putting reliable information on the Internet they are usually going to take the time to make it look professional.
Watch for spelling and grammar mistakes. One or two typos are fine, but if there are lots of them then it is saying that not a lot of care is being put into the site.

Is the information reliable? Can it be verified?
You will be doing other reading on this topic. Does the information correspond to what you have found in other sources? If it doesn’t, does it at least address why

not.
Are the facts and dates correct? If they can’t get this information correct, what else is wrong?

Is it just advertising a product? Do they want you to buy something?
Be wary of .com sites. In advertising they are only going to give you one side of the story.
6. Looking ahead to the assignment: Creating an Annotated Bibliography

Once you have gathered suitable research material, you need to determine whether or not it will be useful for your own project. A quick way to do this is by reading

the abstract of a journal article (this is a summary of the paper), scanning over the headings of a journal article, examining the table of contents, introduction and

conclusion of a book, scanning the bibliography, and taking quick look at any charts, graphs, or tables. This initial “once-over” should help you decide whether you

should check out or print off the material. Once you’ve done this, you may find that you still have a stack of books and articles in front of you, and that you need

some way of organizing your research for use later on in your analysis and writing stages, or to remind you of an author’s central claims. An annotated bibliography