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Weekly Guided Research Assignments |
Week 1
(January 6-8) |
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FILL OUT AND RETURN the schedule of your available time blocks
(used to assign you to a Research Group for completion of Guided Research
Exercises) and your First-Week Questionnaire. NOTE: Failure
to return the schedule of your available time blocks this week may result
in your having to complete all research assignments individually!!
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Read COMPLETELY through the ENGL
203 Home Page.
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If you have time, begin Week 2 RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT (to be
completed prior to first class meeting next week)
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Week 2
(January 13-15) |
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Read Preliminaries
1: Types of Sources and Preliminaries
II: Modes of Access on Dr.
Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools and come to class
able to list the 5
kinds of sources and the 4
modes of access that will be covered in these research exercises.
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Explore your MLA Handbook
(a required text for all English majors). Note in particular chapter
3 (in the 6th ed., 2003; or see ch. 2 in the 5th ed., 1999) on the "Mechanics
of Writing," esp. review of basic punctuation rules, section 3.2
(in the 6th ed., 2003; or section 2.2 in the 5th ed., 1999); the rules
for the use of underlining / italics in section 3.3 (in the 6th
ed., 2003; or section 2.3 in the 5th ed., 1999); and the rules governing
the use of underlining/italics vs. quotation marks in titles,
section 3.6 (in the 6th ed., 2003; or section 2.6 in the 5th ed., 1999).
Also note chapter 5 (in the 6th ed.; ch. 4 in 5th ed.) on proper documentation
of sources (citation format) in a list of Works Cited; pay particular
attention to the basic formulas for citing single-author books in
section 5.6 (in the 6th ed; section 4.6 in the 5th ed.), periodical
articles in section 5.7 (6th ed.; section 4.7 in 5th ed.) and essays
in edited book collections (what the MLA
Bibliography calls "book articles") in section 5.6.7 (6th ed.; section
4.6.7 in 5th ed.).
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Read through the guidelines and requirements for the Composite
Bibliography, so that you will know what material to begin gathering
as you work on the Group Research Exercises starting in week 3.
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Week 3
(January 20-22)
Research Group
Practicum Meetings
begin |
RESEARCH PRACTICUM 1: Searching the Kennedy Library
Print Collections Using Polycat
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Prior to your first group meeting, read carefully
through the
profile
of Polycat on Dr.
Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools. Be sure you
are clear about what Polycat is, what it contains, when (and why) to use
it, its strengths and its limitations. Then, follow the link
to
read through the detailed instructions for your first group research assignment:
Research
Step 1: Kennedy Library Print Collections via Polycat.
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When you and your group meet, follow the directions
found in Research
Step 1: Kennedy Library Print Collections via Polycat to learn how
to locate secondary
sources on your topic (i.e. studies ABOUT your author, topic or work,
not the text itself) in the Kennedy Library collections. Decide which
ONE student will submit your first TWO RESEARCH REPORTS to the class
research
archive: 1) "Searching Polycat" and 2) "Kennedy Library
Results."
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LOOKING AHEAD: As you work on the group research exercise,
check the guidelines for your individual Composite
Bibliography so you can select the secondary sources from Kennedy
Library Print Collections that each of you will use (they must be different
for each group member) and begin assembling your individual file of the
required print-outs. Remember: only the person who submits this week's
reports to the archive may use the book you check out as part of
this research exercise on his/her individual Composite Bibliography; other
group members will need to locate different secondary sources on your topic
in the Kennedy Library's print collections.
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Week 4
(January 27-29) |
RESEARCH PRACTICUM 2: Using LINK+
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Prior to meeting with your Research Group, read
carefully through the description
of LINK+ and its profile
on Dr.
Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools. Be sure you
are clear about what it is, what can be borrowed from it, when (and why)
to use it, its strengths and its limitations. Then, follow
the link
to
read through the detailed instructions for the second group research assignment:
Research
Step 2: Using LINK+. NOTE: LINK+ can be used to order books
only -- not journal articles. It is fast -- books ordered through
LINK+ typically arrive within 2-3 days.
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When you and your group meet, follow the directions
found in Research
Step 2: Using LINK+ to learn how to locate and order additional secondary
sources on your topic (i.e. studies ABOUT your author, topic or work,
not the text itself) which are not available at Cal Poly from the collections
of other libraries in the LINK+ consortium. Please note that you
should NOT actually PLACE a LINK+ order unless you actually intend to read
the book for your own pleasure! Decide which ONE student will submit
the next TWO RESEARCH REPORTS to the class research
archive: 1) LINK+ Search Results"; and 2)"LINK+ Item Citation."
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LOOKING AHEAD: As you work on the group research exercise,
check the guidelines for your individual Composite
Bibliography so you know what you will need to turn in and can
select your individual secondary sources and assemble a file of the required
print-outs. Remember: only the person who submits this week's reports
to the archive may use the LINK+ item listed in this week's "LINK+
Item Citation" report on his/her individual Composite Bibliography; other
group members will need to locate different secondary sources on your topic
which are available from a LINK+ library (and are not available in the
Kennedy Library's print collections).
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Week 5
(February 3-5) |
No RESEARCH PRACTICUM; use group meeting to review
for the MIDTERM
EXAM (day 1 of week 6) and/or to workshop your Introductory
Paragraph Exercise (due day two of week 5). |
Week 6
(February 10-12) |
RESEARCH PRACTICUM 3: The MLA Bibliography and Interlibrary
Loan (ILL)
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Prior to meeting with your Research Group, read
carefully through the profile of the MLA
Bibliography on
Dr.
Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools. Be sure you
are clear about what it is, when (and why) to use it, its strengths and
its limitations. Then, follow the link
to
read through the detailed instructions for the third group research assignment:
Research
Step 3: Using the MLA Bibliography to Identify Additional Sources on Your
Topic (and figure out how to access them!). NOTE 1: the
MLA Bibliography is NOT itself a mode
of access for secondary sources; it simply points you in the direction
of the appropriate mode of access (via links to other databases). NOTE
2: please be aware that ILL
(Interlibrary Loan) is a mode of access distinct from LINK+.
LINK+ can be used only to order books (not journal articles); ILL can be
used to order journal articles. NOTE 3: Because ILL is more
expensive, slower, and frequently less reliable than LINK+, you should
not
use
ILL to order a book (or an essay found in an edited book collection) if
that book (or edited book collection) is available in the Kennedy Library
or through a LINK+ library.
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When you and your group meet, follow the directions
found in Research
Step 3: Using the MLA Bibliography to Identify Additional Sources on Your
Topic (and figure out how to access them!) By following these
directions, you will learn to use the
MLA
Bibliography to identify additional secondary sources that are
not easily unnearthed using Polycat or Link+, and which may or may not
be available in hardcopy or electronic format within the collections of
the Kennedy Library. You will also learn to use Interlibrary
Loan to access articles and books which are not available at Cal
Poly (or through LINK+) -- but again, you will NOT actually PLACE a LINK+
or ILL order, unless you actually intend to read the article or essay for
your own pleasure! Decide which TWO students will submit the next THREE
RESEARCH REPORTS for the class
research archive: 1) "MLA Search Results"; 2) "ILL Journal
Article"; and 3) either "LINK+ Edited Essay" OR "ILL Edited
Essay," depending on which mode
of access you would use to obtain the edited essay (a.k.a. "book article")
you have selected. (The two students should work together on research
report 1; then, each should submit ONE of the two citations required for
research reports 2 and 3.)
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NOTE: Clicking on the "Find It" (or "Citation
Linker") tab in an MLA bibliography entry may lead you directly to an electronic
version of the article. But please be aware that "Find It" is NOT
completely reliable: it cannot "talk" with all of the databases in
the Kennedy Library Collections, and may therefore tell you that no electronic
access is available (and offer to place an ILL order for you) when in fact
the journal in question IS available at Cal Poly, either in print, on microfilm,
or in a subscription database which "Find
It" cannot check. This is why you should ALWAYS do a Polycat
"Journal Title" search AND check for the journal title in
Serials
Solutions before placing an ILL
order for a journal article.
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LOOKING AHEAD: As you work on the group research exercise,
check the guidelines for your individual Composite
Bibliography so you know what you will need to turn in and can
select your individual secondary sources and assemble a file of the required
print-outs. Remember: only the persons who submit this week's reports
to the archive may use the ILL or LINK+ items which s/he posted to the
archive on his/her individual Composite Bibliography; other group members
will need to locate different secondary sources on your topic which are
available from ILL and/or LINK+ (and which are not available in the Kennedy
Library's electronic databases OR print collections).
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Week 7
(February 17-19) |
GETTY
MUSEUM DATABASE ASSIGNMENT.
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This written assignment must be submitted in hard
copy at the class meeting devoted to medieval lyrics (day
1 of week 8). At your meeting this week, your research groupwill
search the Getty Museum database for images of an assigned topic and submit
a hard-copy report of your findings, including a printout of ONE image.
Follow the link
for
instructions. Research groups should research the topic listed in the
assignment instructions under the same NUMBER as the FORUM NUMBER to which
you submit your research reports.
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OPTIONAL: for individual extra credit, you may search
on your own (not as a group) for images of the same topic in another
museum's database, and submit a written report of your findings, including
the URL of the site accessed and a printout of ONE image. If
you wish to do this extra credit assignment, you MUST contact me in advance
to receive a specific site to search. (NOTE: the EC assignment
is not worth a specific number of points or percentage of your final grade;
instead, doing a good job on it earns you discretionary points,
which will bump you up if you end up with a borderline grade at the end
of the quarter.)
LOOKING AHEAD: If you have not already begun to work
seriously on your Composite
Bibliography, get on it!! Remember that this assignment counts
for 15% of your final course grade. If you try to throw it together
at the last minute, you are likely to receive no credit for this assignment
(the penalties for errors and omissions add up fast!)
Also, keep in mind that your expanded 3-4 page
essay (worth 25% of your final course grade) will be due, along with the
original, marked up introductory paragraph, on THURSDAY OF WEEK 9. |
Week 8
(February 24-26) |
RESEARCH PRACTICUM 4: Searching
for Full-Text Journal Articles in Cal Poly's Subscription Databases
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Prior to meeting with your Research Group, read
carefully about electronic
modes of access and the profiles of the four full-text
journal databases we will be using on Dr.
Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools. Be clear
about what each database includes, what to use them for, and their advantages
and disadvantages. Know what must be added to a bibliographic
citation of a journal
article accessed electronically through a subscription
database. Then, follow the link
to
read through the detailed instructions for the fourth group research assignment:
Research
Step 4: Using Kennedy Library Subscription Databases to Acceds Full-Text
Journal Articles.
When you and your group meet, follow the directions
found in Research
Step 4: Using Kennedy Library Subscription Databases to Acceds Full-Text
Journal Articles to search for full-text journal articles on your topic
in four of Cal Poly's subscription journal databases. Decide which students
will submit each of the next FOUR research reports for the
class research
archive: "Muse Results," "EAI Results," ASE Results" and
"JSTOR
Results." NOTE: if you are in a four-person research group, each
student search and report on ONE database. If there are fewer
than four people in your research group, divide the assignment as evenly
as possible, making sure that each student in the group submits at least
one report.
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NOTE 1: the electronic journal databases are expensive,
subscription-only resources that ARE part of the Kennedy Library's collections;
they offer electronic access to a number of journals, to some (but not
all) of which we may also have print subscriptions. When you search POLYCAT
by JOURNAL TITLE, entries should cover Kennedy Library holdings
for that journal in BOTH print and electronic formats, but Polycat entries
may be incomplete since journals are constantly added and dropped from
individual databases.
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NOTE 2: When you have a bibliographic citation
for an article,
Citation
Linker / "Find It" is a quick and easy way to check simultaneously
in several (but not all) Kennedy Library's subscription databases for electronic
access to the article in question. But keep in mind that like other
SFX
resources, Citation
Linker is not foolproof; it may tell you that no electronic access
is available (and offer to place an ILL order for you) when the journal
in
question IS in fact available at Cal Poly, in print, on microfilm, or in
a subscription database which Citation
Linker / "Find It" cannot check. This is why the MLA
Bibliography assignment directed you to check for journal titles in
Serials
Solutions (as well as by through a Polycat journal title search) prior
to placing an ILL
order for a journal article.
LOOKING AHEAD: Continue work on your Composite
Bibliography, and don't forget that your expanded 3-4 page essay
will be due, along with the original, marked up introductory paragraph,
on THURSDAY OF WEEK 9. |
Week 9
(March 3-5) |
RESEARCH PRACTICUM 5: Searching the E-Books Available
through Kennedy Library's Subscription to Netlibrary
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Prior to meeting with your Research Group, review
the information on electronic
modes of access and read carefully through the profile of Netlibrary
on Dr.
Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools. Be clear
about what Netlibrary
is and how to use it. Know what must be added to the bibliographic
citation for a single-author
book or to the citation for an essay
in an edited book collection when the source has been accessed
electronically through this subscription
database (i.e. Netlibrary).
Then, follow the link
to read through the detailed instructions for Research
Step 5: Searching the E-Books Available through Netlibrary.
When you and your group meet, follow the directions
found in Research
Step 5: Searching the E-Books Available through Netlibrary to figure
out how best to find material relevant to your topic in Netlibrary, Cal
Poly's subscription database of E-books. Decide which ONE student
will submit the final research report for the class research
archive: "NetLibrary Results" (including a bibliographic citation
for the BEST source you found on your topic). NOTE: By
the end of the quarter, each group member should have prepared and submitted
at least one report on an electronically accessed subscription database
(i.e. one of the four full-text journal databases from Research
Exercise Step 4, and/or Netlibrary). This means that if any group
member did NOT submit one of the reports on the four electronically accessed
subscription databases, s/he should be responsible for submitting the NetLibrary
report to the archive.
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REMEMBER: Like the electronic journal databases, NetLibrary
is an expensive, subscription-only resource that IS part of the
Kennedy Library's collections; the ebooks found in NetLibrary are
usually listed in Polycat along with any print copies that may be part
of the library's holdings.
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NOTE: because there are relatively few e-books
in Kennedy Library collections, you will likely get the best results by
doing a broad keyword or subject search, e.g. on 'Medieval Literature,"
and then skimming the list of titles to look for likely resources. Based
on titles alone, you will be able to rule out many of the secondary sources
(and all of the primary ones). Go into the remaining ebooks and peruse
the table of contents and the index to determine if the book in question
has anything relevant on your topic.
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Don't forget that your expanded 3-4 page essay is due,
along with the original, marked up introductory paragraph, on THURSDAY
OF WEEK 9.
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Week 10
(March 10-12) |
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Day 1 of Week 10 is the last day to submit group research
reports to the class research
archive, as well as any
hard copy print-outs required along
with those reports.
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Your individual Composite
Bibliography is due at our final class meeting (day 2 of week 10).
It should include complete bibliographic citations in proper MLA format
for your primary source (use the version which we read for this class)
as well as for at least four secondary sources, chosen to represent each
of the four required modes
of access and three required kinds
of secondary source covered in our research exercises.
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Citations should be alphabetized by author (or title for
anonymous medieval works) and be in the appropriate format for the type
of work (consult the models on Dr.
Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools and/or your MLA
Handbook!). NOTE: a medieval author whose name consists
of a proper name followed by "de" and the name of a city or country should
be alphabetized under his/her FIRST name (Marie; Chrétien; Jean;
Guillaume; Christine -- not "de France"; "de Troyes"; "de Lorris"; "de
Meun" or "de Pizan"); "de" plus place name simply means that the named
person is "from" a given place, and is not a "last name" in the modern
sense.
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As necessary, add or substitute items so that your
composite Bibliography 1) does NOT include the same secondary sources used
by other members of your research group; and 2) DOES include each of the
three required types
of sources and four required modes
of access.
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Your grade will be reduced for:
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each required TYPE OF SOURCE and MODE OF ACCESS that is NOT
on the bibliography or which is not eligible to be counted (because another
group member used the same source, because you did not attach all required
print-outs,
or because the source should not have been ordered through the mode of
access you are using it for);
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each error in the bibliographic citations;
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any required print-outs that are not appended.
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Reminder: for each SECONDARY source on the Composite
Bibliography, you must include (stapled to the back of the bibliography,
in
the order in which the items appear) relevant PRINT-OUTS
(from Polycat, Link+, the MLA Bibliography, the full-text journal Databases
and/or NetLibrary) of the
ITEM LISTING with bibliographic information
for that secondary source (print-outs like those which were submitted with
your five group research reports). Additionally, for items ordered
from LINK+ or ILL, you must append all print-outs necessary to demonstrate
that the item in question is not available at the Kennedy Library (Polycat
and/or Serials Solutions Search Screens) or, for a book or essay in an
edited book collection ordered via ILL, through LINK+. You will receive
NO CREDIT for a secondary source on your composite bibliography unless
the relevant PRINT-OUTS are STAPLED TO THE COMPOSITE BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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