Rhetoric

010:003:380

Katherine Bishop, Instructor

Brett Cloyd, Librarian (brett-cloyd@uiowa.edu)

Presented February 2008

See also Resources for Rhetoric Students

  

1. Questions. Please complete the short assignment in class.
   
   
2. Getting started. Determine the nature and extent of the information needed.
   
   You will want to focus your topic, and identify appropriate keywords or subject headings.
    

There may be sources available to give you background information to better understand a topic before you get too far in your search process. You might try these:

• SmartSearch. Keyword with your topic. Limit by collection - pick Main reference for background information. We'll look for some sources on family and marriage to begin with.
• Wikipedia is a popular tool for identifying background information. Most course instructors and faculty members do not consider it a good source to be listed in a bibliography, but it can be a useful place to start.
• CQ Researcher – suggested resource. Provides a good degree of background information for you to better understand a topic. Articles include a list of relevant resources on the topic, charts, statistics, and in most cases, an essay from experts who have differing views on a topic.
  
  

2. Access needed information effectively and efficiently. Having a good sense of your topic should help you find appropriate resources.

There are many sources of information available both freely available through the web and through subscription sources. We should have time for demonstrations of the following subscription resources that may prove helpful to you for this assignment. Not all of these are as simple or straightforward as Google and may have some things to tinker with to improve your search and get to the good stuff (of course, Google has some good stuff - try Google Scholar, or Google Book on your own time if you like).

• SmartSearch – Goal: find reference books, book chapters and government hearings about your topic.
• Resources by Subject
• EbscoHost Academic Search Elite (ASE) – Goal: find scholarly journal articles about your topic
• Quick Review of other EbscoHost databases – Goal: demonstrate that ASE is not the only database you can use.
• Access World News – Goal: learn about a source that has current newspaper articles (i.e. last 5 years)
• New York Times Historical Newspapers – Goal: learn how to find more historic newspapers.
• Lexis Nexis Congressional . Hearings, reports, etc. Try the Congressional research service reports, especially. Advanced search, limit to CRS.
  

 

3. Evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into your knowledge base and value system. Here are some sample activities to consider in addition to your assignment:

 

• Summarize the main ideas to be extracted from the information gathered.
• Articulate and apply initial criteria for evaluating both the information and its sources. Evaluate reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, and point of view or bias
• Magazine vs. scholarly journal page might be useful to consult
• Do you need to reformulate your search strategy or topic?

 

4. Effectively use information to accomplish a specific purpose.

 

• Organize your search process so you can best complete your assignment.
• Keep track of articles you have read, the search terms you have used, and your responses to the source material
• RefWorks is a tool used to manage citations and create a bibliography. It might be helpful for you to use this as a way to keep track of what you have looked at. Citations from many databases, including InfoHawk Catalog, CQ Researcher, and ASE can easily be exported to RefWorks.You can also share your citations with others. I am sharing some citations on marriage.

 

5. Understand many of the ethical, legal and socio-economic issues surrounding information and information technology.

 

• Be sure to cite your sources. It makes you look good ("hey, I found these articles from experts in the field, read them and provided my opinion") and gives credit where credit is due.
• A Libraries handout on using MLA format is available http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/ref/documents/howcitemla.pdf.  Better yet, RefWorks can generate a bibliography for you. This tutorial can help
  

These steps in the research process are adapted from ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, 2004.