Short Description
This exercise was designed for 1st year writing students with several different goals in mind: • encourage deeper, closer reading; • introduce the concept that information sources have perspective; • develop vocabulary around describing information and perspective; • acquaint students with the many values/uses of subject encyclopedias; • practice topic narrowing using these types of encyclopedia articles.
Learning Outcomes
• Distinguish/discern differences in treatment of the same subject in different texts. • Differentiate/recognize different types of information sources in lists of references. • Assess/compare/contrast author credentials. • Assess/compare/contrast authority, audience and perspective of various subject encyclopedias.
Discipline
Participation Type
Ability Level
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips
When they are in their groups composing their presentation, you will need to encourage them to go into more detail, cite examples from the texts to support their claims. They will initially be making very broad, general statements. Students working on the 4th question will probably need the most assistance.
Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated):
Students love wikipedia, and this exercise builds on that. They tell me that one of the ways they use wikipedia is to help them narrow their topic. I've often recommended to students that they read some encyclopedia articles to help them focus/narrow/define their research question. This exercise can serve as a way to encourage that use. It could be immediately followed by having them locate subject encyclopedia articles for themselves.
Suggested Citation
Gradowski, Gail. "Pick One, Any One? They're all just encyclopedia articles . . ." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments). 2018. https://projectcora.org/lesson/pick-one-any-one-theyre-all-just-encyclopedia-articles
Attachments
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