The program is divided into two sessions. Each session builds essential research skills and cultivates an understanding of rhetorical analysis. The sessions are designed to reflect the students' stage in the research process, with early sessions focusing on brainstorming topics and later sessions focusing on evaluating sources for credibility and authority.
Brainstorming Activity: Students are divided into groups and assigned a predetermined topic. To help develop a research question from a broad topic, they are asked to collaboratively answer the questions in the quadrant below. Groups will share their responses with the class and discuss how to refine their topic and develop search strategies. Students are then introduced to various search engines and article databases that provide scholarly and popular resources.
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What?
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Who?
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How?
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Why?
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Evaluating Authority Activity: Students are given a brief article to read. Using the article, we have a conversation about evaluating sources for authority, relevance, and credibility. We also discuss some of the differences between scholarly and popular sources. Students are provided with a worksheet they can use to evaluate sources that they discover in their own research.
Students are grouped by overarching research topics for discussion and analysis of their work. This is a time for students to examine additional resources which they may incorporate into their research process. Session 2 emphasizes the integral role of the Libraries in the inquiry and research process.
For additional resources, please email Teaching & Learning Services directly (libues@umd.edu).
The Teaching and Learning Librarians host a series of ENGL 101 course-related Research Workshops. These workshops are designed to help students with assignments such as the argument of inquiry, digital forum, and position paper. Each session will start with a brief overview of a particular research skill and the remainder will be devoted to work-time while a friendly librarian is on hand to answer questions.
For those who can't make it to a workshop, they are always welcome to visit T&L (libues@umd.edu) for one-on-one research help!
