Week 11 - Locating & Citing Sources
Overview
This week we will focus on research tools, particularly the academic databases available through the UA Little Rock library.
Plan & Preliminary Annotated Bibliography AssignmentThe activity you will be working on this week is a plan and preliminary annotated bibliography for the researched deliberative argument. The assignment details are hot-linked here and also available under "Major Assignments" on the navigation panel.
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The plan should clarify two things:
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The preliminary annotated bibliography should also do two things:
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As we all know, it is important to document sources, which means to clearly identify where you obtain any information or language. There are at least two reasons to learn to document properly, both pertaining to ethos:
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Three common documentation styles are APA, MLA, and Chicago. These styles were developed for use in different disciplines. APA, which stands for American Psychological Association, is used in many social science disciplines, especially ones that use empirical research methodologies. MLA, which stands for Modern Language Association, is used in many humanities disciplines like English and French. The Chicago style was developed by the University of Chicago Press, and is often used by history and philosophy. None of these is better than the other. They just have different emphases.
For the plan/annotated bibliography, and for the full argument, you may use MLA, APA, or Chicago, whichever is appropriate for the topic or your major.
If you are doing an academic argument or white paper, you should include both the list of references or works cited and the parenthetical citations. If you are doing a non-academic genre like an op-ed, you should prepare the APA, MLA, or Chicago list for me, and in the text, you should refer to sources internally. We will talk more next week on this.
Academic Databases
Your fees are used to purchase subscription databases like CQ Researcher and others. The databases we will be using this week are a little different than CQ Researcher in that they don't produce their own reports; instead they compile millions of published documents that you can access. These tools allow you to find and read relevant sources. The tools are extremely useful--if you spend some time learning how to use them.
Reading & Resources
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2. Read and follow along in these step-by-step guides on conducting a ProQuest search and an EBSCO search. [I recommend printing these so you can follow-along online while reading these guides.]
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4. Complete the tutorial for MLA, APA or Chicago documentation on the Excelsior College OWL. There are videos, explanations, slide shows, and a quiz at the end.
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Activities
- Online only: Participate in a check-in Tuesday discussion in Bb.
- Both sections: Submit a Plan and Annotated Bibliography as a Google Doc to Dr. Matson by Sunday, April 14, 2019