This activity proceeds via Socratic questioning. The goal is to have students explain the common stumbling blocks they encounter as they look for information and as they write papers (if they have). The role of the librarian is to facilitate the discussion by providing a contextual framework for student experiences. By showing students that their research process follows a common pattern, they can make better choices about how, when, and where to look for information (e.g., not jumping straight to peer-reviewed articles when they can barely define their topic)

This assignment was designed to incorporate information literacy concepts into an in depth writing assignment. By only focusing on a total of one outside source at a time, students are required to do deep research to find the one source that they can engage with on the level required for a good essay. Requiring a small number of sources also allows the students to practice incorporating outside material into their own writing and thinking and allows the instructor to see progress in this area.

Exercise One:

Choose a phenomenon, situation, or event that relates to family life in the United States. Examples of this could be gay marriage, international adoption, divorce, immigration, or a phenomenon that has directly impacted your own family. Find one scholarly source written by a sociologist related to your topic and write a 1200 word essay (+/- 10%) that describes the phenomenon as you understand it, identifies how it is connected to family life in the United States, why you are interested in it, the ideas presented by the author of the source, and how those ideas add to your knowledge or understanding of the phenomenon. Cite your source properly in text using ASA style and include a full ASA citation for it at the end or your paper.

Exercise Two:

Find a second scholarly source written by a sociologist on the phenomena you selected. Write a 600 (+/- 10%) word addendum to your original essay that details the ideas presented by the second scholar and how these ideas further enhance or complicate your understanding of the phenomena. Cite your sources properly in text using ASA style and include a full ASA citation for your sources at the end or your paper.

Library Instruction:This exercise would benefit from a library instruction session focused on the first learning outcome – identifying scholarly sources and finding discipline specific information

• Discussion of identifying scholarly sources (ending with the three-point test for scholarly information: peer-reviewed or extensively edited, included citations, written by a scholar from within the discipline)
• Finding scholarly sources using discipline specific tools (for sociology: Sociological Abstracts, Social Science Citation Index)

This set of assignments is designed to help students: (a) grow initial thoughts and questions into carefully scoped and well-reasoned research papers, and (b) develop critical thinking skills through interrogation of familiar images of religion and spirituality in American popular culture.

This assignment is designed to help students develop a thoughtful research topic. Students go through a series of steps, questions, and background reading to help them better understand and refine a research topic.

Students are asked to reflect on their experience writing a required “literature review” for the course through a first-person “comic.” The visual narrative format allows students to come to terms with their own experience of what was hard, easy, or confusing about the literature review process and express it in a creative way.

Students pick a topic related to Communication Studies (or another social science discipline) and then define the topic operationally by finding a way to measure it. They test out their instrument on a partner.

The primary purpose of a literature review is to provide a rationale for your proposed research question(s). You need to locate your research question within the broader conversation of a particular discipline. A review of literature should present a synthesis of existing theory and research literature that argues for the usefulness of the research question. The process of constructing a literature review acquaints the researcher with the studies already done in a particular area and allows the researcher to build/extend existing knowledge and enter into the discourse of a particular field. The student selects a research topic that is related to course material and of interest and gets it approved by the instructor. Then they must locate 8-10 scholarly sources that address the research topic. Finally, they write a literature review that includes a clear introduction stating the research topic; and a body that summarizes and synthesizes the 8-10 sources required, ending with a new research question. All sources must be cited in proper APA style. Grading is based on source quality and source relationship to the research topic, organization, ability to synthesize, quality of the research question, and adherence to the proper citation style.