UNV-102 Literature of Global Migration: Home

In today's class you'll learn more about research and find sources for your annotated bibliography. 

The plan for the day is: 1.) think/pair/share discussion, "what makes a good source?" 2.) Librarian demo and research practice in library databases 3.) think/pair/share discussion, "observations on the research process: what worked, what didn't, and what should we try?" 4.) Librarian demo and research practice in identifying and evaluating sources from the open web 5.) Debrief on the process, reviewing research activity results. 

Think/pair/share: What Makes a Good Source?

• How do you usually go about finding sources for college research?
• How do you determine if a source is credible?

Constructing Effective Search Strategies – Research Practice

Class demo then try your search in each of the below databases and complete online activity numbers 1-5. 

Think/pair/share: Research Debrief

• What worked?
• What didn't work? 
• Try out peer suggestions and report out

Evaluating Sources from the Open Web

Class demo, then complete numbers 6-12 and be sure to email yourself your results so that you're ready to work on your Annotated Bibliography!

Some types of sources. All of these sources could be considered primary or secondary and may be of varied credibility and accuracy. Identifying the type of source can help with credibility evaluation. It also helps when determining how to cite.

An annotated bibliography is often assigned to help you synthesize and evaluate research you've collected. In its simplest form, it is an alphabetical list, with each entry including citation of a source followed by a short paragraph of description. Your professor will let you know which citation style to use, often Chicago or Turabian, APA, or MLA. The paragraph will include a description of the contents of the source, including the main ideas or arguments. This should be concise. It is an opportunity for you to reflect on the source and put its main ideas in your own words. Beyond this, you may also:

• Evaluate of the author's background and expertise and credibility to write on the topic.
• Describe author's theoretical approach and/or research methodology
• Describe the author's findings or arguments inform your thesis or argument  
• Situate this source in relation to other sources you're citing; why is this source important? How does it advance your research?

The University of New South Wales, Syndey provides a description of the annotated bibliography. At the bottom of the page check out how it dissects an annotation, showing how one might include the above analysis.

Selecting Sources for an Annotated Bibliography

Professors also assign annotated bibliographies to help students think about how sources relate to each other as well as with the student's thesis or research question. A key function of the annotated bibliography is to give students an opportunity to select, among many sources they've found through their research, the most significant or important. This means that you should find and skim the abstracts, introductions, and/or conclusions of numerous sources, ideally taking notes, before selecting those that most directly inform your thesis statement or help you answer your research question.

Your sources should help you describe points of contention, controversy, areas of consensus or agreement, and questions still to be answered. The annotation can include your analysis of how the various sources interact.

More about selecting, evaluating, and summarizing sources from the University of Toronto Writing Center. 

Purpose of today's workshop

Practice skills you need to complete your Rhetorical Comparison essay, in particular, section 3, which requires you to examine bias, reliability, and authority, but also to analyze the rhetorical situations, such as purpose and context, which can give information about bias and authority. 

Warm-up

Look at these headlines from British news sources.  

The Guardian: Be grateful you’re still here: Germany’s rebuke of a grieving mother exposes its deepening anti-immigrant mood

The Daily Mail: One in three Brits SUPPORT this week's anti-immigration protests - and one person in 14 backs the rioting too, shock poll reveals: A quarter of people say Muslims are at least 'somewhat responsible' for the unrest

Discuss with your partner:

• What words or phrases signal bias?

Take two minutes to read the articles.

• What assumptions do the authors of these articles make?

Class discussion: What makes a source more or less reliable? How does the author's perspective influence the message?

Discussion: Authority, Bias, and Credibility

• Authority is Constructed and Contextual – Who the author is matters, but expertise is different in different contexts.
• Bias Affects Information Presentation – All writing has some bias, but some are more transparent or evidence-based than others.
• Evaluating Evidence – Not all sources or citations are equally reliable.

Use a simple framework for evaluation:

1. Who wrote it? (credentials, affiliations, expertise)
2. Why was it written? (to inform, persuade, advocate?)
3. Who is the audience? (scholarly, general public, policy-makers?)
4. What evidence is used? (statistics, studies, anecdotes, opinions?)

Small Group Activity

1.) Split in to groups of two or three. 2.) Choose one group member's text to evaluate. 3.) Choose one group member to be the scribe. 4.) Either visit the class padlet in a browser or double click on the padlet below to begin posting. 5.) Skim the text. 6.) Discuss and post your answers for each factor: Author's background and bias; Tone & intended audience; Evidence and citations; Agreement, disagreement and missing perspectives.