Today the plan is: 

• Talk about the conventional structure of academic output
• Discuss reading strategies as adapted by some of my amazing colleagues
• Review and deconstruct a text in groups through a slow reading process
• Talk about the value, authority and relationship between different types of texts, and writing styles

Let's Get Started:

1. Two Questions in Jamboard (respond to one or both questions)
   1. What would you like to learn or discuss in today's class? 
   2. What would you like to know about the library, its tools or its services?

What is a scholarly article, and how do you read one? 

Scholarly articles

How do you know if you have a credible, reliable, relevant source? Consider the following:

1. Is the author qualified to write about the topic?
2. Does the resource incorporate quality reports or research?
3. Is the language used objective, or emotional?
4. Is the information opinion-based, or can you identify some bias?
5. Does the resource actually address your research topic or problem?
6. Who is the intended audience?

Your resource doesn't necessarily have to meet all of these criteria. In fact, some of the texts today may not fit within this conventional idea of "credible". 

Reading articles

Scholarly articles often follow a similar format. This makes it easy to hop around the article and gather the most important information. Here are some tips for getting started.

1. Read the abstract, introduction and methodology
   By reading these sections first, you should be able to identify the objective of the study and how the study was conducted (the method).
    
2. Read the discussion and conclusion (at the end)
   The conclusion and discussion will tell you a broad overview of the study findings, but also why those finding are significant.
    
3. Read literature review and results
   If the article seems relevant, go ahead and read the rest of the article. From the literature review you will better understand the 'research gap' that this article fills and the details of the study results. Reading the results can take time, especially if the article uses statistical methods.

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

Tips for Reading Scholarly Articles

Adapted from handouts by J. M Loyer &M. MacMillan

Check for relevance – is the article useful for what you’re doing? You will likely never find the perfect article that’s exactly on the topic you have in mind – but you will find ones that are close and useful because:

• They provide background or context
• They provide theories that help you examine/understand a new situation
• They look at a similar group of people
• They look at similar situations
• They use methods that you could use to answer similar questions
• They apply techniques that could be useful in your situation
• They have useful bibliographies that direct you to even better materials

Print out the article –studies show that reading in print is better for comprehension and retention.

Skim to get the general idea – review introduction, headings, conclusion to see if the article will suit your needs

Get comfortable and carve out a little time – reading for depth takes focus and practice, and you’ll probably have to read the article more than once

Read with a pen in your hand – mark up interesting points, points, odd words, circle key concepts

Read the article by having a dialogue with the author – “really?” “prove it!” “are you sure about that?”- constantly question the author(s)

Practice slow reading – mostly we don’t read, we skim - summarize paragraphs as you go, read the article aloud to slow down

Note unfamiliar words and concepts – look them up on your second read through

Make connections as you go – note what the article reminds you of, what thoughts it provokes, how it matches or contradicts your experience – these connections are critical to your understanding of texts.

Draw things out –stats, tables, connections or relationships can make more sense if you diagram them

Consider approaches and limitations– if you started with the same question(s) as the author – how would you approach finding the answers?  What’s missing from the article – what questions does it leave you with?

Discuss the article with others – students identified this as a very useful strategy for getting the most from articles

A wise person once said to me that reading academically is using a different muscle than reading in bursts, which these days, is what most of us are used to.  Let's talk about slow reading and try it out, and see if it makes a different in how we understand and relate to certain texts. 

Slow Reading Presentation

I am going to break everyone out into groups.  In your groups, try to address the following questions:

AM Class

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

PM Class

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4 

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Scholarship is a Conversation

• Over time, as students and scholars write about a topic, the accumulation of writing becomes a scholarly conversation. With each writer, new insights and discoveries are documented over time, adding different perspectives and interpretations
• Referring to other essays, studies and reports and describing how they relate to your own work gives authority to your arguments. This is particularly important when people have different opinions about the topic you are addressing in your writing. 
• Citing other researchers proves that you know what you are saying is relevant, since you’re placing your words in the context of the existing literature. If the topic you are writing about is subjective in nature, your reader knows you’ve consulted other research and your opinions are based on some consideration of the scholarly conversation on that topic.

Source: From “Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students,” NCSU Libraries, (CC-BY-NC-SA license)

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

How do you know if you have a credible, reliable, relevant source? Consider the following:

1. Is the author qualified to write about the topic?
2. Does the resource incorporate quality reports or research?
3. Is the language used objective, or emotional?
4. Is the information opinion-based, or can you identify some bias?
5. Does the resource actually address your research topic or problem?
6. Who is the intended audience?

Your resource doesn't necessarily have to meet all of these criteria.

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, book chapter, website, etc)
• Is this source trustworthy enough to use for an assignment in this course? Why or why not?

Group 1: UNDRIP 15 years on: Genuine truth and reconciliation requires legislative reform

Group 2: Braiding Legal Orders: Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Group 3: Realizing Indigenous Rights in the Context of Extractive Imperialism: Canada's shifting and fledgling progress towards the implementation of UNDRIP

Group 4: UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Group 5: Unsettling Canada’s Colonial Constitution: A Response to the Question of Domestic Law and the Creation of an Access and Benefit-Sharing Regime

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

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 - "Métis art"

• Use  AND to combine search terms - canad* AND Métis AND "self-government"

• Use OR to connect two or more similar terms - "Métis faith" OR "Métis spirituality"

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

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. 
 

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:gc.ca (Government of Canada)
• site:en.unesco.org (UNESCO)
• site:worldbank.org (World Bank)
• site:wto.org (World Trade Organization)

Audio Production Rooms and Space - (MRU Libraries) Podcasting guides, recommendations for software, contact for support.

MRU Podcasting Guide - provides guidance as to where to find images/audio for your podcase, how to share your podcast and how to cite sources within your podcast.

Plan a Podcast (UNC University Libraries) - This worksheet can help you develop the concept for a new podcast and develop an episode script.

Create a Script for Your Digital Project (University of Guelph McLaughlin Library) - A guide with information about how to write a script for a podcast, digital story, animated video or live action video. Also check out their supplementary script template.

Podcast Scripting: How Do I Write a Podcast Script? (The Podcast Host) - An introduction to different podcast scripting methods, including word-by-word scripts, episode plans, and rough section headings and bullet points. Find out which works best for you!

How to Write a Podcast Script (Castos) - A quick introduction to script outline templates and tips for how to make your delivery engaging.

Audio Production Rooms and Space - (MRU)Podcasting guides, recommendations for software, contact for support.

Undergraduate Research Guide - Poster Presentations - advice on tools, design, samples

Noun Project - stock photos and icons

How to Create Storyboards (University of Houston) 

How to make a Visual Essay (Owlcation, 2018)

Digital Storytelling Examples and Tools

How to make your own animated video

Digital Storytelling with Power Point

Digital Storytelling

Resources for Images

Wikipedia's Public Domain Images 

Flickr.com

Creative Commons

MulticolorEngine

​Morguefile

MRU Indigenous Studies Guide - Archival Collections and Images

Digital Essay Example

Smelting in the Sudbury Basin: Impacts on Tree Health in n'Daki Menan

• 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.