Unit 1 For Unit 1, you'll have a few different assignments to complete. First, you should read all of the attached documents and videos (the two documents in this unit below, along with the Library I
Guide to Preliminary Research
One of the first steps in selecting a topic is conducting preliminary research. You do this for two main reasons. First, you should conduct preliminary research to ensure that there is plenty of information about your topic that can be found from reputable places. Second, you should conduct preliminary research to expand your base of knowledge on potential topics.
Because you will be required to use only scholarly sources for your research for the essays, you should limit your preliminary research to scholarly sources as well.
A scholarly source is a document or text whose authenticity and veracity are assured. All of your research this semester should be scholarly in nature. Below, you’ll find a few examples of scholarly sources with notes on where you can find them. Please note, the Library Instruction section of the course contains documents and videos designed to help you find and evaluate these source types. You should pay close attention to those videos and documents.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles – Articles published in journals where scholars in a specific field of study review content to verify authenticity and veracity are peer-reviewed. These can be found in the library or via the library databases. The two best databases for finding scholarly journal articles are JSTOR and Academic Search Complete (see Library Instruction sections: JSTOR and Academic Search Complete). All articles found via JSTOR are peer-reviewed. Some articles on Academic Search Complete are peer-reviewed, but some are popular sources (articles from newspapers and popular magazines). Make sure to refine your search on Academic Search Complete so that it only provides you with peer-reviewed sources.
Scholarly Books – Most books (including e-books) found through the McNeese library (see Library Instruction section: Catalog) will be considered scholarly. Note that encyclopedias and children’s books are not scholarly.
Government Documents – The fourth floor of the McNeese library holds government documents. Anything published by the U.S. government is considered scholarly. This includes information found on government websites. This includes websites with a .gov or .mil site designation. You can access the government documents held by our library through the catalog.
Organizational Websites – Websites for professional organizations can provide you with scholarly articles. Be careful though, as not all .org websites are scholarly. Websites for organizations like the American Heart Association or the National Collegiate Athletics Association will be considered scholarly for this course. You MUST get my approval before using a .org website.
Primary Sources – A document, artifact, or text that originated at the time being studied is a primary source. This can include first-person accounts, newspaper or magazine articles, or literary sources. You must get my approval for any primary sources that you wish to use. Make sure that the source was actually produced at the time that you are studying. You wouldn’t want to use a source that is reflecting back on an occurrence after time has passed. For example, if you were writing about cloning, you could use a newspaper article from immediately after Dolly the sheep was cloned, but you wouldn’t want to use a newspaper article from three years later that reflected back on Dolly’s cloning. You can find newspaper and magazine articles in the library, through Academic Search Complete, or through the websites of those publications (nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com, etc.)
If you find a source that does not fit one of these groupings, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is not scholarly in nature. Use your best judgment. We’ll talk in the next unit about evaluating sources. That will be part of your job in the annotated bibliography. Ask yourself these questions: Is the source from a publication that is well respected? Who wrote it? What authority does that author have in this field? When was it produced? Is it biased in some way? Ask yourself these questions first, then, if it seems scholarly to you, contact me for approval of the source. Please note that I must approve all sources that do not fit in the above groupings. If you use a source of another type that I have not approved, there is no guarantee that it is scholarly, and that could have an impact on your grade.
I strongly encourage you to begin your research into potential topics by looking at the McNeese Library catalog, Academic Search Complete, and JSTOR. Beginning with Google or another search engine will not tell you much about what scholarly sources are available, but beginning with the library catalog and those databases definitely WILL give you a good idea of how much material you have access to on your given subject.