Information Literacy Instruction Goals
- Identifying your information needs based on assignment requirements
- Accessing sources; strategic reading
- Search multidisciplinary databases to find full text articles on a topic; use "Find It" links to find full text of articles.
- Cite sources using this discipline's main citation style.
Sources and your research approach
"Sources: Your paper must reference:
● A minimum of 6 scholarly sources and 2-4 popular sources (journalistic articles, critical reviews, etc.) and
● Treadwell, D. (2025). Introducing Communication Research: Paths of Inquiry (5th ed). Sage"
Think of these sources as pieces of evidence that support your research argument, but also as a timeline describing types of sources to gather and use from start to completion of your first draft.
1. Exploring the topic: 2-4 popular sources (Web search for news or non-library sources)
2. Academic searching: Scholarly Books for background research (search the library catalog for these)
3. Academic searching: Scholarly Articles for current research (Library databases AND Google Scholar)
4. Giving credit to your sources (citations)
5. Drafts & revisions (consult research librarians, writing center, tutors, etc)
New college students use Google Scholar to complete research tasks in high school, and they hesitate to use other tools in the completion of college-level research tasks.
If this is still you, consider my BIG 3 research approach for scholarly sources:
1. Use library tools first. If we don't have it, go to step 2.
2. Try Google Scholar as a fallback plan. If that doesn't work (like, you hit a paywall)...
3. Use SU Libraries' Interlibrary Loan service when all else fails. If you have citation info for a source you can't get, request it through ILL.