Fall 2008
INLS 200-001: Retrieving & Analyzing Information
[Syllabus] [Schedule] [Reading] [Blackboard]
[Research Question] [Source Evaluation] [Annotated Bibliography] [Final Portfolio]
Research Project
Overview
This assignment is concerned with both the process of retrieving information and the use of that information in response to a question. You will each develop a question of interest. Then, you will explore (i.e., examine, evaluate, and use) various sources to retrieve information pertinent to the question. Finally, you will assemble the information into a portfolio responding to the question.
Deliverables
The final deliverables for this assignment are:
， A journal of your research question's development: This should include your first and second question drafts, any subsequent question drafts, discussions of the development of your question, your responses to my feedback on your drafts, or basically anything you have to say about why your question evolved as it did.
， A report exploring (and answering, if there is an answer) your research question.
， 3 source evaluations that you wrote during the semester.
， An annotated bibliography of all of the sources that yield useful information that you actually cite in your report.
Some of these deliverables are due throughout the semester (three source evaluations, and two question drafts). These intermediate deliverables will be graded when they are submitted. The final report will be graded separately from these intermediate deliverables.
The portfolio should include all intermediate deliverables. Let me repeat that: your portfolio should contain everything that you have handed in all semester, plus additional material (report and annotated bibliography).
Note: If you want to revise anything that you have handed in previously in the semester for the portfolio, please do so. But make a note in your materials of what was revised.
A journal of Your Research Question's Development
Every change to your question should be documented, with a brief description of the reason(s) for the revision. You will submit this journal, combining your first and second drafts of research prospectus, explaining how they evolved during the semester and why you made changes. Please keep it mind that you need to include this journal to the final portfolio whenever you made changes on your research questions.
Report
The response to your research question should be developed as a brief formal report. The report should integrate the knowledge acquired from the sources consulted, citing each source as appropriate.
The report should be a 3-4 page paper (double-spaced). The report should explore (and answer, if there is an answer) your research question.
All sources that you use in answering your research question should be clearly cited in the report. This page contains a good overview of how to create citations in text. You must cite a source if you quote directly from it, but also if you simply use an idea from it.
There are many ways of making use of a source in a paper, but they all boil down to two basic ideas: direct quotes and summarizing. A quote is an actual passage from another person's writing, that you include in your own writing. When you quote a source, you must put the quotation inside "quotation marks," and cite the source by indicating the author, date, and page number (if applicable) that the quotation comes from. The author Isaac Asimov, for example, has this to say about using other people's writing in your own:
"... you must understand how learned books are written in case you ever want to write a learned book. First thing you do is get a thousand references, chosen at random... You then put them into the book, in the order you reach them... And stick two or three lines of your own between each of them to act as mortar... And you're all set" (Asimov, 1974).
No really, he's kidding. On the other hand, a summary of someone else's writing is just that, a summary. It's not a direct quote, but you're using an idea from the other person's writing. When you summarize someone else's writing, you still need to provide a citation to the work that the idea came from. For example, I believe that in order to be a well-informed person in the information age, you must possess information literacy skills, and so I have designed this course as Shapiro and Hughes (1996) suggest, as the foundation of an entire educational curriculum based on information. Once you cite a source, you must include that source in your bibliography.
Bibliography
An annotated bibliography must be included with the report, which must include all of the sources that you use in writing your report. These sources may be books, journal or magazine or newspaper articles, webpages, videotapes, whatever... in other words, the sources from which you are getting the content that you are using to answer your research question. These sources should not be databases, websites, etc... in other words, not the places where you found these sources.
At this point of writing the final report, you already practiced the annotated bibliography writing in the previous assignment. At that time, you submitted only 2 entries of your sources. While the number of items included in the bibliography will vary from topic to topic (i.e., student to student), each bibliography must contain at least 7 high-quality resources. If you use any of the sources that you evaluated for your 3 source evaluations in your final report, you do not need to write a new annotation for those. Since you wrote 2 entries in the previous assignment, you need to write 2-4 more this time. Each information resource should be cited in American Psychological Association (APA) format. The bibliography should be organized alphabetically, by author's last name.
APA is the citation format most commonly used in the social sciences. If you are not familiar with this format, you should look at the APA Publication Manual, 5th edition, which is in nearly every library on campus. The following links may be helpful with this format:
， This page contains a good overview of APA citation style for print sources.
， The APA maintains a website about how to cite electronic sources.
Many sources have both print and electronic versions − for example, many dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, and journals. These dual-media sources can count as either a print or an electronic source in your bibliography, but not both. Make note in your source evaluation of the media in which you are using the source, and the unique features of that source in that media, which set it apart from that source in the other media.
Poster Presentation
Each of you will do a poster presentation on the final response to your research question.
Your presentation may include the following information.
Here are useful guidelines for the poster presentation.
These are mostly for academic presentations in conferences, so the posters convey richer information than yours. They are just a guide for you on ways to introduce your topic effectively to your classmates. The format or style of the poster is your choice. Your poster doesn¨t have to be fancy like the academic posters. (See the poster examples from the previous classes on Blackboard)
On the presentation dates, 7-8 posters will be displayed in the classroom at the same time. The speakers need to prepare 5 minute presentations and may repeat it several times for different groups of audience (classmates).
The rest of the class is required to write feedback to the speakers while they listen to their presentations. Papers with the feedback will be collected and prepared by the instructor and given to the students on the presentation date.
Criteria Used to Evaluate This Assignment (Total: 20)
1. Poster Presentation: 5 points
ü 5-minute presentation summarized well the topic of the research.
ü The purpose of the work was clearly defined and understandable.
ü The flow and the logical transition of the poster were clearly stated.
ü The presenter responded to questions adequately.
ü The presenter showed clear understanding of topics and well-prepared.
2. Journal of the Research Question's Development: 2 points
ü The journal nicely combined the first and second drafts of the research prospectus.
ü The journal summarized well how the research question evolved and changed.
3. Final Report: 5 points
ü The purpose of the work was clearly defined.
ü The flow and the logical transition of the report were clearly stated.
ü The cited sources were appropriate to address the issues of the research topic.
ü The final report should be a clear, focused, well-integrated discussion responding to the research question in its final form.
4. Source Evaluation Revision: 3 points
ü Three source evaluations were well-revised based on the feedback of the instructor to the previous versions.
5. Annotated Bibliography: 3 points
ü The annotated bibliography was well-revised based on the feedback of the instructor to the previous version.
ü The newly added annotated bibliography was well-written according to the rules applied to the previous assignments.
6. Citations / APA Formatting: 2 points
ü The sources were correctly cited in the text of final report, following by the APA style formatting.
ü The reference list included all of the source citations and the citations were written correctly.
Assignment Submission
Due dates of the final portfolio is December 8, 2008. All of the deliverables need to be combined as one file (See the Final Portfolio Template file on Blackboard). Submit the electronic file of the final portfolio (file name example: "Sanghee Oh_Final Portfolio.doc") by 5:00pm on the due date.
Last Updated: 08/18/2008