WRIT 1133:�An Introduction to Library Research and Investigating Authority

Bridget Farrell

Librarian

Bridget.Farrell@du.edu

What can you tell me about your upcoming assignment?

• Formulate a research question about a topic related to a pressing situation we face today.
• Ideally, choose a pressing issue and question related to the field you want to enter or a cause that you are passionate about.
• In designing the qualitative study, you will identify a community affected by your pressing issue to research further.

Today’s topics for discussion:

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• Identifying Research Questions for a Topic
• Tips for Searching
• Investigating Authority
• Library Services

Group Activity (15 minutes): �As a group, pick one of the topics below. Every person in your group should then find different websites that could provide an answer for the topic you’ve chosen. As a group, discuss which of the sites you’d trust the most for the situation and why.�

1. A slang word you are unfamiliar with: “swole”

2. The appropriate way to behave in a new situation: “What to wear to a fundraising gala”

3. A medical issue: “sprained ankle”

4. A problem with a person: “A friend doesn’t text you back”

5. A skill you lack: “How to write a check”

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Choosing a Topic and Developing Research Questions

Concept Map

Question Map

• Visualizes connections between concepts
• Organizes what you know about a topic

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dmje/5159177886

https://kab.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tugna:No_map.png

• Explores different lines of inquiry
• Articulates what still needs to be uncovered

Compass

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• What is it?
• What does Compass search?
• How to limit to peer reviewed articles
• Finding full text
• Saving what you find

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Best Practices for Searching

• Don’t search using entire sentences

Are children who live in food deserts more likely to suffer from obesity?

• Do choose a few key words or phrases to search

Food deserts children obesity

• Do Use quotations when searching for phrases

“Food deserts” children obesity

• Do Combine keywords for different aspects of your topic with AND

“Food deserts” AND children AND obesity

• Do use OR to combine synonyms and related words

“Food deserts” AND children AND (obesity OR overweight)

• Don’t use OR for words that are not synonyms/closely related

“Food deserts” OR children AND obesity

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Start searching!

• Take 10-15 minutes
• Find ONE peer reviewed article on your topic
• Find ONE news article on the same topic using Google News
• Both articles should have a clearly identified author (not an organization)
• Have me or your instructor check to make sure you’ve found the two articles

We’ll be using these two articles in just a moment for our discussion about evaluating authority

Investigating Authority

How do you evaluate information you find?

• Currency: timeliness
• When was it published? Is the information current?
• Relevance: importance of the information to your needs
• Does it relate to your topic? Who is the intended audience?
• Authority: source
• Who is the author/publisher? What are his/her/their credentials?
• Accuracy: reliable, true, correct
• Has it been reviewed/refereed? Is it supported by evidence?
• Purpose: reason the information exists
• Fact, opinion, or propaganda? Are there biases?

How do you investigate an author’s authority on a topic?

• Educational background
• Community affiliations
• Work experience
• Support their claims with others’ research

How do you investigate an author’s authority on a topic?

PEER REVIEWED

NEWS ARTICLE

How do you investigate an author’s authority on a topic?

How do you investigate an author’s authority on a topic?

PEER REVIEWED

NEWS ARTICLE

Investigating authority for articles on your topic

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• Take a look at the two articles you found earlier in class (one from the web and the other peer reviewed)
• If there is more than one author for an article, choose one to evaluate.
• Take about 30 minutes to fill out the questions about your two articles at this site:

https://udenver.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7Qcxp5wfmkFPMH3

or

https://tinyurl.com/duauthorityproject

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Wrap-up!

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• What did you discover?

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• Any interesting revelations?

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• Is authority context based?

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Services at the Anderson Academic Commons

• Research Center

Ask Us

Consultations

• Writing Center

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Questions?

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�������Bridget Farrell

Bridget.Farrell@du.edu