Speech 121 The Process of Interpersonal Communication Library Information Competency Prepared by Ibtesam Dessouky Instructor Kate Campbell Fall 2011

LAHC Library Library Basics  Logging in to computers – instructions on workstations in the library lab.  Books – most check out for 2 weeks. You need student ID to check out materials.  Reference books – cannot be checked out.  Reserve books – most are for building use for only two hours unless the instructor allows the material to be checked out.  Periodicals – most print magazines & journals can be checked out for two days. Electronic databases and indexes contain many full-text articles.  Library web site is

LAHC Library Today we will cover the following issues  Identifying a research topic  Formulating a thesis statement around the topic  Exploring general information sources  Identifying key concepts that describe information needs  Achieving a manageable focus  Evaluating and organizing information based upon relevance to thesis  Choosing the right format to retrieve the information  Developing a search strategy

LAHC Library Identifying a Research Topic  Choosing a topic –What are your interests? –Use sources to get ideas. Read the newspaper. Use the CQ Researcher online database to browse by topic ( You can combine topics. (Music and the Vietnam War; Professional sports and Civil Rights) –What do you already know about your topic? –You may also get ideas from class notes, syllabi, and assigned readings.  State your topic in the form of a question –For Example: Are there differences in how men and women self-disclose?

LAHC Library Identifying a Research Topic (cont’d)  For your research paper you will choose a family relationship & focus on one of the relational concepts, listed below, to enhance the effectiveness of your interpersonal communication.  Perception  Emotions  Self-Concept  Listening  Nonverbal Communication  Language  Self-Disclosure  Relationships  Conflict

LAHC Library Formulating a Thesis Statement Around the Topic  Definition - A thesis is a statement that coheres all the material you’ve gathered into a unified piece. You can form a thesis statement prior to gathering research, but you may need to modify it based on what you’ve found.  “Think the words, ‘I believe …’ just before you write your thesis statement. This will insure that you and your ideas are in the paper.” (Baron, p. 10) –Example: “I believe that gender affects the way people interpret information.” “I believe that gender does not affect the way men & women interpret information.”

LAHC Library Exploring General Information Sources  Reference works –useful for finding facts, data, statistics, and brief information. Libraries usually don’t allow these to circulate. Include encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, statistics. Specialized encyclopedias include Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, Encyclopedia of Psychology, and Encyclopedia of Relationships Across the Lifespan.  Biographies & Autobiographies –collective or individual biographies. Collective biography could be an encyclopedia of mathematicians or of jazz musicians. Individual bio. is usually a monograph. An autobiography is written by the subject, sometimes with assistance.

LAHC Library Exploring General Information Sources (contd.)  Monograph –“A scholarly piece of writing of essay or book length on a specific, often limited subject” (American Heritage® Dictionary)  Periodical –Article in a journal, magazine, or newspaper. Relatively short (compared to full-length books) and often quite current On-line information –can include: Articles in a periodical index (full-text articles indexed in an online periodical database, such as Academic OneFile, are considered print … delivered online), Newspaper articles reprinted on a newspaper’s site, Online magazines (Salon.com), Blogs (highly personal and subjective), Personal website, Commercial website, Educational organization’s website

LAHC Library Select Information Sources It is important to understand the difference between a "magazine" and a "scholarly journal". It can sometimes be difficult to make the distinction but here are several clues to help you with that process: Journals Magazines  ScholarlyPopular (News)  BibliographiesNo bibliographies  AbstractsAdvertisements  Intended for a specific Intended for a general audienceaudience  RefereedNon - refereed articles  Very plain, no photosColorful and flashy  Target audienceGeneral audience  Long articlesShort articles

LAHC Library Select Information Sources (cont’d)  Examples of Magazines (Popular)

LAHC Library Select Information Sources (cont’d)  Examples of Journals (Scholarly)

LAHC Library Identifying Key Concepts That Describe Information Needs  Is the issue a very current one? If so, what kind of sources are you most likely to need?  Is the issue covering a period in history? How far back? What kind of sources might be appropriate?  Is the issue controversial? If so, you’ll need to find information expressing a variety of points of view.

LAHC Library Achieving a Manageable Focus  How long is your final project? A five minutes speech? A 250 word essay? A two page paper? A page research paper? This will determine …  How many sources you should cite.  Most college instructors expect the majority of sources to be printed, rather than from the Internet. Remember, however, that full-text articles indexed in an online periodical database, such as Academic OneFile, are considered print … delivered online.  Scholarly journals only, or are popular magazines ok?

LAHC Library Evaluating and Organizing Information Based Upon Relevance to Thesis  You may need to revise your thesis based on what you learn from the data you’ve gathered  “An accurate thesis is important, for a general statement indicating the direction of all the material will give your discussion one logical direction, a necessary characteristic of any successful paper. Careful formulation of a clear thesis will prevent rambling. If you have trouble arriving at a clear and concise general statement, you probably have included irrelevant material.” ( Yaggy, p. 19)

LAHC Library Choosing the Right Format to Retrieve the Information  Online Catalog to locate books that LAHC Library owns (  Electronic Databases to retrieve full-text articles from magazines, journals and newspapers from Academic Academic OneFile or ProQuest Academic OneFileProQuest  Periodicals (print journals or magazines)  Selected Reference Works  Searching the Internet using search engines such as Google and Internet Public Library GoogleInternet Public Library  Library of Congress Subject Headings, LCSH, to trace a subject for your topic

LAHC Library Developing a Search Strategy  There are mainly three steps to follow in developing a search strategy: 1. Identifying the key concepts in your thesis statement. For Example: Are there differences in how men and women self-disclose? 2.Choosing related terms or synonyms for your key concepts. 3.Combining your terms using Boolean operators, such as and, or and not.

LAHC Library Developing a Search Strategy (cont’d) Using Boolean Operators to Connect Terms  AND Narrows a search. A record must have all the terms in the citation  OR Broadens a search. Either term may appear in the citation  NOT Narrows a search by excluding articles containing the second search term

LAHC Library Bibliography  The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. 4 th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Print.  Baron, Alvin. Bud’s Easy Research Paper Computer Manual. Lawrence, N.Y.: Lawrence House Publishers, Print.  Sanderlin, David. Writing the History Paper. Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron’s Education Series, Print.  Yaggy, Elinor. How to Write Your Term Paper. New York: Harper & Row, Print.

LAHC Library Other Resources  Harbor College Library Home Page