Class Meeting 2: Academic Success

When you get an assignment you need to think about two things:  what you already know about the topic AND  what you need to know about the topic Let’s examine a current news event in light of this

Indications of time/how current the information should be - most recent information or historical data? Indications of specificity – should the paper focus on the entire population, or subsets like women, a particular region? Should you find popular or expert ideas/opinions? Do you need primary sources to make your own interpretations or use secondary sources that include interpretations?

 Has research been difficult in the past?  First, you must understand the question being asked  Clarity can be elusive!  Author = Speaker, Reader = Listener  Obligations exist between speakers and listeners when in conversation  Examples?

Poverty is the cause of violence in urban areas. OR Poverty is a cause of violence in urban areas.  Difference between the statements? How is the meaning affected?  How would you go about finding support for the first statement?  What about for the second statement?

 Google your search topic  How did you:  Find all possible sources?  Phrase your search terms?  Choose your final sources?  Determine the author?  Weed out bias?  College is about researching new ideas – even those you aren’t actively interested in

Research topic: current types and availability of health care options for infants in developing nations Use of the word AND - limits the results to those that include every keyword (health care AND infant AND developing nation) Use of the word OR - expands the results to include alternate words/synonyms (health care OR health plan, infant OR baby, developing nation OR third world)

 Search Smarter, Search Faster Search Smarter, Search Faster  bjxA bjxA  University of Sydney

 “Choose a major news source and critique their coverage of the presidential election in terms of scope, depth, and bias” OR  “Describe what you see as the problems New Orleans is facing even now, so long after Hurricane Katrina, and why there are still problems”  Keywords?  Search in Merlin, Google, and ASP  Pros & Cons of each search?

 MERLIN is MU’s online catalog – it is how you find materials at any library on campus  Loan period is 1 month for undergraduates, 3 months for graduates  Materials include books, bound journals, reference works, DVDs, Government Documents, Special Collections, etc.  MERLIN cluster includes all libraries at the following campuses:  UMC  UMKC  UMR  UMSL  Can request items directly from other MERLIN libraries within the MERLIN catalog by clicking the “Request” button  Delivery time is usually between 2-4 days

 MOBIUS is a consortium of Missouri’s college and university libraries, and a few public libraries  As an MU student, you can request books and other materials through MOBIUS  Delivery time is usually between 2-4 days  Loan period is 3 weeks for all students  “Search MOBIUS” button is included in MERLIN, and a direct link to MOBIUS is on the library homepage  NOTE: Bound journals, reference works, and other materials cannot be requested through MOBIUS

 Type one paragraph each (at least 5 sentences each) to each of the following questions:  What is information?  What is a library?  Bring in the sheet of paper to hand in, in person, at the next class meeting. Grades may be lowered for distracting spelling and grammatical errors.