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Listed below is an outline for key skills that you should be able to demonstrate by the time you graduate: |
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- Understanding How Knowledge
is Produced, Disseminated and Organized
- Knowing How to Formulate
Questions
- Knowing How to Access Information
- Knowing How to Evaluate Information
- Understanding How to Make
Use of Information
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Begin the process of mastering
these concepts by doing the following: |
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- Know how to devise a viable
research topic
- Understand the differences
between scholarly, popular and other types of sources
- Distinguish between library
catalogs, research databases and the non-proprietary areas of
the World Wide Web
- Know the difference between
types of databases (citation, full-text, image, etc.)
- Know how to find a complete
article once you have found a citation to it
- Understand the rhetoric of
a web page: that is authored by someone, has a particular audience
in mind, and has specific goals or biases
- Understand citation conventions
and effective use of quotations and citations
- Understand the definition
of plagiarism and how to avoid it
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Know how to evaluate information on the web. Look at a site and answer the following list of questions: |
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- Who is the author of the
site?
- What are his or her qualifications?
Does she have special expertise about the subject (e.g. has s/he
published other books? Is she an expert in the field?
- Is the site peer-reviewed?
- What is the purpose of the
site? Does it provide any unique materials? (a good example might
be a digitized collection of materials from a university library)
- Who is the intended audience,
as far as you can tell?
- What did you learn about
the subject matter from this site?
- Is documentation provided
to back up any claims made?
- Is the site organized clearly
(consider issues of both verbal and visual organization)?
- Is the information here consistent
with what you know about the subject from other sources? Can
you verify the information or make judgments about its reliability?
- What other sites link to
this site (what company does it keep)?
- Do you recommend the site?
To whom and for what purpose?
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