General Education | GNED 1301 - S. Brown

This session is tailored to support a number of research assignments for this course including:

Active Hope Research Paper (check out the Assignments tab in D2L for specific details)

• Identify a specific climate change or ecological challenge that is relevant to you
• Support the specific questions outlined in your assignment using credible research sources.  You much cite a minimum of 5 quality references within your paper.  2 must be academic/peer reviewed.
• Cite sources using APA style

Annotated Bibliography

• Annotated 5 credible references or your Active Hope Research Paper.
• 3 must be academic, peer-reviewed journal articles..  See D2L for specific details
• Cite sources within this work, in APA

I hope to do the following in today's session: 

• Talk about different types of information you will likely encounter during your search
• Speak to what a scholarly/academic source is, and how to identify one
• Facilitate an exercise to give you practice critically evaluating different sources
• Demonstrate one way to develop a search strategy
• Demonstrate how to find credible sources using MRU Library Search, Google and Google Scholar
• Point you to citation resources, provide you with examples of annotated bibliographies

Authority is Constructed and Contextual

Information, in any format, is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method.  The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising and disseminating information vary, and the resulting produce reflects these differences (ACRL par. 13).

• Information creations are valued differently depending on the context and purpose for which they are created
• Audience matters. Certain things are created for certain purposes and it doesn't really make one format of information better than another. It is up to us to discern what information process best fits our information need.
• In your own creation process, understand that your choices in what type of information you use, impacts the purpose for which the information product you create will be used and the message it conveys

Source: Project Cora - https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/information-spectrum

Encyclopedias 

Strengths: short, contains background information on a topic, normally a great starting point when you are just learning about a topic

Weaknesses: too short, print encyclopedias are out of date quickly, Wikipedia has reliability issues

Books

Strengths: Provides an in-depth investigation into a topic

Weaknesses: too long, sometimes hard to tell whether it is scholarly

Media Sources (news, online magazine articles)

Strengths: Good for current information

Weaknesses: Sometimes biased, sometimes written to entertain, often not written by experts

Websites & Social Media

Strengths: Highly accessible, includes government info

Weaknesses: It is hard to assess credibility and reliability...anyone can post online or create a website

Scholarly Journal Articles

Strengths: often based on research findings or extensive review, written by experts, reviewed by experts, provides evidence

Weaknesses: Sometimes written using discipline-specific language or terminology, hard to understand

Primary Sources
Strengths: Original sources (include, but are not limited to recordings, diaries, autobiography, artifact, constitutions, acts, edicts, cases
Weaknesses: Hard to find, hard to cite, hard to remember if they fall within primary or secondary categories.

A scholarly publication contains articles written by experts in a particular field. The primary audience of these articles is other experts. ... Many of these publications are also referred to as "peer-reviewed", academic, or "refereed". They all mean essentially the same thing and refer to the editorial and publication process in which scholars in the same field review the research and findings before the article is published.

1. What are the author’s credentials? Is it written by an expert?
2. Published in a journal (is there a DOI?) If you are not sure if it is a journal article enter the title of the publication into Ulrichs Web
3. Academic language
4. Includes reference list
5. Length
6. A "Received" and "Accepted" date
7. Is it an actual article? Sometimes other types of content are included in scholarly publications, such as editorials/opinion pieces and book reviews.  Make sure you are looking at an article. 

Activity 1

I have put together two activities.  In the first activity, let's think about the types of information discussed and sort them as a group (is it scholarly/academic/peer-reviewed or not?) Take 3-5 minutes to sort the sticky notes on the jamboard to the side that you think would best fit.  Remember: for your annotated bibliography, you will be docked marks if you do not use credible/scholarly sources.

Scholarly or not: a sorting activity

Activity 2

As a group, take a look at your assigned source and discuss the following questions for the next 10 minutes. 

• What type of source is this? (e.g. peer reviewed journal article, government publication, etc)
• Is this source trustworthy enough to use for an assignment in this course? Why or why not?

Group 1: Evolution of drinking straws and their environmental, economic and societal implications

Group 2: Plastic legacies: Pollution, persistence, and politics

Group 3: COVID-19 has worsened the ocean plastic pollution problem

Group 4: Single-use plastics prohibition regulations - Overview

Group 5: Canada's wasteful plan to regulate plastic waste

Key questions when evaluating sources

When assessing the quality of a source, here are some questions to consider:

Celia Brinkerhoff, Doing Research, CC-BY-4.0

Figure 1. Copely, R. Huge stand in the market with a large selection of fruits [Photograph]. Pixy.org. https://pixy.org/143529/

What words would you use to describe this photo? 

Questions to consider

• Are you using the terminology that an expert in the field would use?
• Is there more than one way to spell the word?
• Are there any synonyms or other terms that could apply to your topic?

Things to remember when using Library Search:

1. Sign in to save searches, items, and to request materials.

2. Use the pin icon to save books and articles. 

3. Use the filters on the right. You will use Availability, Resource Type, and Date filters most often.

4. Some items won't be available. You can request unavailable items using interlibrary loan.

5. When viewing an item record, scroll down to the Get It or Full Text section to get the item.

You can search in a way to combine or omit different terms by telling the search engine exactly what you want…this can help you save some time (and frustration!)

• Use quotation marks to keep phrases together - "illegal logging"

• Use  AND to combine search terms - "palm oil" AND Indonesia AND "protected areas" 

• Use OR to connect two or more similar terms - logging OR deforestation

• Use NOT to omit unwanted results - "palm oil" NOT nutrition

• Use wild cards to substitute a letter or suffix with a symbol - nutrition*

Search Google Scholar

Google Scholar is another great way to find peer-reviewed/scholarly material. Google scholar has a nifty citation chaining function.  The Cited by function will forward you to indexed scholarly material that has cited an article that you may be interested in.  The Related Articles link will direct you to similar articles that may have the same metadata or keywords. 

The Advanced Search is found by clicking the menu icon (top left).
Besides providing links to articles in MRU databases, Google Scholar links to online repositories that contain articles the author has been allowed to upload.  Academia.edu and ResearchGate are among the repositories searched by Google Scholar.

By clicking on the Settings icon, you can select library links to show library access for up to 5 libraries (type in Mount Royal and click on save).  If you are logged into MRU library, links should automatically populate if you are running a Google search in another window. 
 

Optimizing Google (possibly for your creative representation assignment)

Note: Google uses different commands: ~; -; +; but AND/OR also works

If you are searching Google (not Google Scholar), you can also limit your search to show specific websites. Eg:

• site:un.org (United Nations)
• site:unicef.org (United Nations Children's Fund)
• site:en.unesco.org (UNESCO)
• site:worldbank.org (World Bank)
• site:wto.org (World Trade Organization)

Finding Stats and Data

• OECD Health Data Contains data on the health systems of OECD countries including health status, medical resources, health expenditures, costs and flow, and non-medical determinants of health from 1960 forward.

• International Financial Statistics - International Monetary Fund (IMF) Contains approximately 32,000 time series data on all aspects of international and domestic finance, covering more than 200 countries

• Statistics Canada (English) Statistics Canada provides information on Canada's economy, society and environment. Search the site or browse The Daily for key information.

• FAOSTAT Food & Agriculture Organization
• UN Data new and improved portal to the many UN databases, with a single search interface
• World Health Organization Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) interactive database bringing together core health statistics for the 193 WHO Member States.
• Human Development Index and Human Development Data The UNDP measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living.

To make sure we are all on the same page, let's put our knowledge to the test. Skim the following resources available through the links.  Keeping in mind the characteristics we have discussed in class (eg: what is this information and where did it come from? Was it written by an expert? Where is this source published?).  Vote whether you think this source is Academic/Scholarly or Not Academic/Popular.  If this is a popular source...use your critical eye and think about the quality or credibility of this source, and if this is something you could use for your paper proposal/research paper.

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4

Source 5

Source 6

What is it?

An annotated bibliography is a list of references with a brief description

• Includes complete bibliographic information (a citation)
• Summarize the work – describe the content of the article
• Evaluate the work – critically look at the scope or main purposes of the work. 
• Note authority (who wrote it) and any possible biases
• Determine the relevance – discuss how the source is relevant to your topic
• Do NOT use the abstract to summarize, use your own words
• Demonstrates that you have taken the time to look at a variety of sources to support your topic

Things to Remember

To avoid plagiarism when paraphrasing, remember these five important points:

1) Your paraphrased text should be significantly different from the original (i.e. don't just change a few words here and there)

2) You must change the structure of the sentence or paragraph you are paraphrasing, not just the words.

3) If you use anyone else's words verbatim (word for word) you need to put quotation marks around it.

4) Use proper citation methods to give credit for the ideas, opinions, or theories you are presenting.

5) Check that you have preserved the original meaning of the text in your paraphrased version

What do I need to include?

An annotated bibliography entry consists of two components: the Citation and the Annotation. For this assignment, use APA style format (7th ed.)

Generally, an annotation is approximately 100-300 words in length (one paragraph). However, your professor may have different expectations so it is recommended that you clarify the assignment guidelines.

An annotation may include the following information:

1. A brief summary of the source
2. The source’s strengths and weaknesses eg: has it increased your awareness on the topic you chose?
3. Its conclusions
4. Why the source is relevant to your selected theme
5. Its relationships to other themes in the course eg. social issues and social change
6. Information about the author’s background
7. Your personal conclusions about the source in relation to your positionality and a discussion topic.

Examples of Annotated Bibliographies and how to format 

• Annotated bibliographies - OWL@Purdue

  Includes definition, samples and examples for APA, MLA and more

• Writing an annotated bibliography - University of Toronto

• How to write annotated bibliographies (Memorial University)

• Concordia University annotated bibliography guide

• Video: (Carleton University) Writing an Annotated Bibliography

• Cite Sources: Learn the correct way to cite sources by using these guides, tutorials, and videos.
• Referencing Webinars: APA & MLA. Referencing Webinars are 75 minutes long.  Registration is required.
• Online Appointments: Personalized online 30-minute appointments with a Learning Strategist.