Photo by Matthew Paulson, CC-BY-NC-ND.
Library Instruction Goals
This guide can help you:
Explore topics for your paper or project. What motivates you?
Know differences betwen scholarly and popular resources.
Explore SU Library's information resources.
Start to gather information for an assignment.
+Assignment and research approach
Sometimes, a structured approach to research can help to organize ideas and the way you think about information sources:
1. Explore topic basics (casual web searching)
2. Depth & Breadth (library catalog: books)
3. Specific "conversations" (library databases: journal articles)
4. Support your argument (source citation)
5. Drafts & revisions (research librarians & learning commons)
Research Assignment:
"To complete this course, you will craft an 8-10 page piece of critical writing (double spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 point font). The topic is of your choosing, but of course you should in some way explore core course concepts. In this regard, it is important to note the difference between a report (“It was cloud today.”) and scholarship (“It was cloudy today for this arguable reason, based on this research.”). This critical writing is to be just that: critical. It is not meant for you to report information, but rather, via analysis, argue an original line of thought.
March 7 - Thesis statement and annotated bibliography (at least 5 sources) due
April 2- Pre-first draft of paper due
April 20 - Actual first draft of paper due
May 15 - Final paper due
Manage & Organize
ProQuest RefWorks is a citation management tool. It helps you keep track of all your sources. There are many different ones out there, but RefWorks is the only one support by SU Libraries.You can check out this guide for help or ask a librarian!