General Education

Assignment Details

Final Research Project

Select one book or journal that focuses on “Global Citizenship.” You may choose your own topic, but it must align with this theme.

Choose One Topic:

• Cultural Competence in a Globalized World
• Diversity and Respect
• Global Interconnectedness and Interdependence
• Sustainable Development
• Globalization: Its consequences—both positive and negative—and recommendations to address the associated challenges.
• The Role of Global Citizens in Climate Change
• Ethical Leadership
• Systemic Inequality: Its effects and suggestions for addressing it.
• Equity in the Workplace
• Global Citizenship Education in Schools
• Addressing Global Health Challenges
• Peacebuilding

Your paper must include the following sections.

• Title: Your Name, Faculty (Your Faculty), University, Course, Instructor, Date, Word Count
• IntroductionL
  • Provide general information about the topic (Cite sources).
• Why Did You Choose This Topic?
  • Discuss any personal interest and/or connections you have to the topic.
• What Is the Topic About?
  • Summarize the topic and discuss the author's views in your own words (Cite sources).
• Identify two organizations that focus on the topic and discuss their missions and/or services (Cite sources).
• What Was Your Prior Knowledge of the Topic?
  • Reflect on what you already knew before researching this topic.
• Do You Agree or Disagree with the Author’s Views?
  • Explain your position regarding the author's perspective. Provide reasons for your stance. (Cite sources)
• What New Knowledge Did You Gain?
  • Discuss any new insights or information you acquired from your research. (Cite sources)
• How Do You Relate the Topic to Global Citizenship?
  • Explain the connections between the topic and global citizenship. (Cite sources)
• Connections to Other Disciplines:
  • Discuss the topic's connections to at least three other disciplines (e.g., economic, political, social, environmental, cultural). (Cite sources)
• Conclusion:
  • Summarize the main points you would like to highlight in your paper. (Cite sources)
• References
  • List your references in APA 7th edition style, ensuring you include at least five peer-reviewed articles and one publication from an organization focused on the topic. You should have a minimum of eight references. The reference list must be on a separate page, not as a separate document.

Formatting Requirements:

• Your final paper should be well-written, and double-spaced.
• 10 pages, excluding the title page and reference list.
• Use 12 pt Times New Roman font and standard margins.
• Page numbering should start after the title page.

PowerPoint Presentation

Prepare a PowerPoint presentation based on your final paper to present in class. Be mindful of the time limit; your presentation should last between 5 to 7 minutes. You are permitted to summarize the sections you included in your final paper for the presentation.

Representation of the specific topic

With the knowledge that you gain from your research you will create a representation of your understanding of your specific topic. The goal of this assignment is to entice your audience to want to learn more about your topic and/or get involved, (it is not intended that you will inform your audience on all aspects of the issue). The way you choose to represent your understanding is wide open, however, you must have both a visual and audio component to it (for example, if you paint a picture, you must also talk about it, for example describing the significance or connections of your image to the issue you have chosen). Some ideas to consider are:

• Create an informative short video on the issue (not just a talking head)
• Create some kind of visual art representation and discuss the significance
• Write and read a short story or children’s book
• Write and perform a poem or a spoken word or song
• Create a game to learn about the issue, demonstrate the game in class
• Draw a political cartoon and discuss
• Design and create a poster/placard that grabs people attention
• This is not intended to be a mini lecture but a creative representation

You are encouraged to draw on your personal strengths and abilities when choosing a way to represent your issue. Please note that this assignment is not limited to the above ideas, you are encouraged to be creative and ‘think outside the box’. If you have an idea that is outside these suggestions it is recommended that you discuss it with the instructor.

Please keep in mind ethical considerations when considering including others in creating your representation or actions, many potential issues could be personal and traumatic for the individuals impacted by this. For this reason and the university ethical rules you are not permitted to interview, or survey individuals impacted by the topic.

Remember that if you include material (including images, text, video etc.) in your representation that is not original to you, you must properly reference this material in a Reference list, using APA formatting. You can create a separate word document for your reference list.

You will upload all relevant/needed files to the designated location, “Representation”, before the class.

The length of your representation presentation needs to be 5 minutes.

Conducting Academic Research With LibrarySearch 

LibrarySearch is MRU Library's one-stop search interface/catalogue that brings together resources across format, time, and subject. 

We have millions of e-resources and 221,000 physical resources in our collection, and LibrarySearch searches across those.

Things to remember when using LibrarySearch:

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

2. Use the pin icon to save books and articles to your Favorites for future reference.

3. Use the filters on the right. You will use Availability, Resource Type, and Date filters most often. Filter settings can be "locked in" so that you don't have to reapply them to every search that you make.

4. Some items may not be available, however, you can request unavailable items using what is called interlibrary loan.

5. When viewing an item record, scroll down to the Get it (for hardcopy/physical items) or Access options (for electronic items) section to get access to the item.

Helpful Search Operators to Use in LibrarySearch

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

• Use quotation marks to keep specific phrases together:

  • "global citizens"

  • "ethical leadership"

  • "sustainable development"

• Use AND to combine search terms (LibrarySearch automatically creates an AND when you write terms one after another, but it can be good practice to use an AND to help you understand the searches that you build) (AND narrows your search):

  • "global citizens" AND "climate change"

• Use OR to connect two or more similar terms (OR broadens your search):

  • "climate change" OR "global warming"

• Use wild cards to substitute a letter or suffix with a symbol:

  • citizen* (in this example, the search citizen* will search for records that contain strings such as citizenship and citizens)

Conducting Academic Research With Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is another great way to find high quality resources.

Besides providing links to resources 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. 

Google Scholar has a nifty citation chaining function. The Cited by function will forward you to indexed scholarly material that has cited a resource that you may be interested in. The Related articles link will direct you to similar articles that may have the same metadata or keywords. 

Helpful Search Operators to Use in Google Scholar

Google Scholar's Advanced Search is found by clicking the menu icon in the top left.

You can also add search operators to Google Scholar searches to build your own custom advanced searches in similar ways to LibrarySearch:

• Use quotation marks to keep specific phrases together:

  • "domestic violence"

• Avoid using AND to combine search terms with Google Scholar, as the search engine automatically creates ANDs between concepts and sometimes adding an additional AND can confuse the search syntax.

• Use OR to connect two or more similar terms:

  • "domestic violence" OR "intimate partner abuse"

• Use wild cards to substitute a letter or suffix with a symbol:

  • ethic* (in this example, the search ethic* will search for records that contain strings such as ethics, ethical, and ethically)

Figure 1

Peter Steiner's Famous 1993 New Yorker Cartoon Illustrating an Issue Central to Information Evaluation

Note. From "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" [Cartoon], by P. Steiner, 1993, Wikimedia (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Internet_dog.jpg).

Evaluating Information

It is good to find lots of search results, but, in order to use information skilfully, you need to know how to evaluate that information to determine whether a specific resource is appropriate to use in a specific use case (i.e. for a specific assignment).

The phrase "evaluating information" actually stands in for a wide range of judgments that we make about information in many different contexts, whether those judgments are about relevance, timeliness, quality, etc.

Librarians have developed several different acronyms to help people remember useful criteria to use in information evaluation. One of my personal favourites is RADAR!

RADAR stands for

Relevance

Authority

Date

Accuracy

Reason for Creation

We can ask the following questions to help us assess each criterion:

Relevance:

• Does this source fit my topic?

• What is this source's intended audience?

  • Is that intended audience appropriate for my use case in this assignment?

Authority:

• Is/are the creator(s) of this source clearly identified or known to us?

• How important is it in this use case to trust the source's creator(s)?

  • If it is important, why should we trust the source's creator(s)?

  • Is the source's creator credentialed or an expert in their field?

Date:

• Is the creation or publication date of this source identified or known to us?

• Is this source too old?

Accuracy:

• Do this source's facts "check out"?

• Does the source have references of its own?

Reason for Creation (take your best guess at this question using judgments from earlier criteria):

• Why was this source made?

• Was this source made to sell a product or service, to inform/educate, to entertain, etc?

(Adapted from Mandalios, J. (2013). RADAR: An approach for helping students evaluate Internet sources. Journal of Information Science, 39(4), 470-478. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551513478889)

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

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.

Some Helpful Questions for Identifying a Scholarly/Academic Article

1. What are the author’s credentials? Was it written by an expert?

2. Was it published in a journal (is there a DOI?)? (If you are not sure if a source is a journal article, you can enter the title of the publication into Ulrichs Web to check.)

3. Does it use academic or more technical language?

4. Does it includes a reference list of sources that it is citing?

5. How long is it? (Scholarly articles are typically longer than popular or news articles.)

6. Does it have a "Received" and "Accepted" date on it?

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.)

 Add / Reorder 

Activity: Is It Scholarly?

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 (for example: 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 Scholarly or Not Scholarly.

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4

Source 5

Source 6

Source 7

Source 8

Image Sources

Photos:

Image Collection

Contains images from Archive Photos, Canadian Press, Motion Picture & Television Archive, and MapQuest as well as a variety of images from the public domain.

ARTstor

ARTstor is a digital library of nearly 1,000,000 images with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.

Oxford Art Online

Provides access to more than 23,000 subject entries, 21,000 biographies, 40,000 image links and 5,000 images.

Bridgeman Art Library Archive

Founded in 1972, the Bridgeman Art Library works with museums art galleries and artists to make the best art available for reproduction. It represents a large part of the complete collection chosen for its suitability for web use. Over 17000 individual works of art are featured here cross-referenced and linked using Bridgeman's own categories.

LIFE Photo Archive

Search photographs from the LIFE Photo Archive.

Images on the Web:

Flickr Creative Commons

Creative Commons licensing offers an alternative to full copyright. Search the collection of Flickr images that have been offered for use with CC licenses.

Wikimedia Commons

Search freely usable media files.

Pexels

Stock photos

Tineye

Searches for images that match an uploaded file or another image on the web - great for tracing original creators of images, rights holders, or just finding more information.

Google Images Search

Great for finding high-profile images.

Archival Collections:

Glenbow Western Research Centre

Search the photographs collection in the Archives.

Alberta on Record

Search for digital material in the Archives Society of Alberta’s online portal.

Library & Archives Canada Image Search

Search for photographs, drawings, maps and art.

For more information on finding images you can use in your work, consult the Copyright Guide's Copyright friendly image resources section.

Citing Images in your Assignment

Consult MRU's advisory of image citation in APA here.

Images that you refer to in your assignments must always be cited both parenthetically in text and in your reference list.

Images that you reproduce in your assignment must also be cited in-text with a figure number, title, and a figure note.

Example 1

Note: Some instructors allow you to use a typical APA parenthetical in-text reference (as in Figure 1 above) under your image instead of a more formal figure note.

Reference list entry:

In addition to the in-text citation, this image would also be cited in your reference list like this:

Raphael. (1505-1506). Portrait of a woman [Drawing]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raffaello_Sanzio_-              _Portrait_of_a_Woman_-_WGA18948.jpg

Example 2

Reference list entry:

Denali National Park and Preserve. (2013). Lava [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/

If the image has no title, provide a description of the image in your own words, e.g.:

Denali National Park and Preserve. (2013). [Photograph of blue-eyed dog in the snow]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/

Example 3

Reference list entry:

Philadelphia Museum of Art [@philamuseum]. (2019, December 3). “It’s always wonderful to walk in and see my work in a collection where it’s loved, and where people are [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5oDnnNhOt4/

• In this case there is no title, so we use the first 20 words of the post’s text as its title (according to the direction of APA style).

Example 4: Stock image citations

Reference list entry:

Kanenori. (2022, September 8). [Photograph of the Ōnaruto Bridge in the evening]. Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/landscape-evening-onaruto-bridge-7438429/

Example 5: Integrating your own images

Reference list entry:

My own supplied image does not need a reference list entry in APA style.

Activities

1. How would we properly integrate this image into our research paper?

2. How would we properly integrate this image into our research paper?

(Answers here!)

Citation Help

• Use the "cite" feature in most search tools to get you started with most resources (you will need to review and correct the citation).

• Cite Sources: Learn the correct way to cite sources by using these guides, tutorials, and videos.

  • MRU Guide to APA Style for Referencing (2025-2026)

  • MRU Guide to APA Style for Formatting a Paper (2025-2026)

  • Citing Images Using Figure Notes in APA Style

  • MRU Guide to Visual and Verbal Citation

  • Citation for Presentations and Videos (short video)

• Academic Success Workshops: Academic Success Workshops are 75 minutes long and are offered both in-person and online. Registration is required.

• Appointments: Personalized online or in-person 30-minute appointments with a Learning Strategist at Student Learning Services located on the 2nd floor of the Riddell Library & Learning Centre.

• Use the Service Desk on the 1st floor of the RLLC for assistance as well as the library chat feature on the library website for quick citation questions.