Summarizing, Structuring, Presenting

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Summarizing, Structuring, Presenting
Documenting Results
Documenting, Style Structure
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First Things First

• Think about the assignment (again), plan what
  youre going to do before starting working on
  your paper
• For a research paper, the following steps are
  important
• Outline
• First Draft
• Rewrite
• Final Version

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Summarizing Research

• What does each source tell you?
• What is the perspective of the source?
• Is this an overview of the injury?
• A traditional therapy?
• A nontraditional therapy?
• Is it written by a therapist? a physician? an
  athletic trainer?
• Does that matter?

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Evaluate the Resources

• Look at the textbooks and journal articles using
  appropriate criteria
• Who is the publisher? Who is the author? Who is
  the audience?
• Is it peer reviewed? Editorially reviewed? Not
  reviewed?
• Is it understandable? Is it original research? A
  review of previous research? An informative
  piece based on experience?
• Use all the criteria presented previously to
  ensure appropriate resources are used

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Structuring the Paper

• Look at the directions for the paper
• Be sure each criteria is satisfied
• Begin looking at the resources youre going to
  use to respond to each part of the assignment
• Gather more resources as needed

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Information Literacy Definition

• Within the context of lifelong learning and
  the broad information continuum which ranges
  from data to knowledge to wisdom, information
  literacy competency focuses on five broad
  abilities
• to recognize the need for information
• to know how to access information
• to understand how to evaluate information
• to know how to synthesize information
• to be able to communicate information

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The Benefits of Citing Sources

• Many students do not realize that whenever
  they cite a source, they are strengthening
  their writing. Citing a source, whether
  paraphrased or quoted, reveals that they have
  performed research well and synthesized the
  findings into their own argument. Using sources
  shows that a student is engaged in "the great
  conversation," the world of ideas, and that
  the student is aware of other thinkers'
  positions on the topic. By quoting (and citing)
  writers who support the student's position, the
  student gains strength for the position. By
  responding reasonably to those who oppose it,
  the student shows that there are valid
  counter arguments. In a nutshell, citing helps
  make the essay stronger and sounder.

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Citing Sources

• It's never been more important for you to get
  in the habit of giving credit to those who
  supplied you with valuable ideas, data,
  experiments, pictures, photographs, etc. And,
  it's never been simpler to cite them
  correctly.
• More and more databases, such as EBSCO, are
  automatically providing citations in the
  proper style

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EBSCO Automatically Provides Style Formatting!
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What is a DOI (Digital Object Identifier)?

• Reliably identifies digital objects
• Appropriately archives the article
• The publisher uses this number to provide a link
  to the digital information
• Recognize their growing use in scientific
  literature
• For more information about DOI, go to
  http//www.doi.org.

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Locating the DOI

• For instance, in the Internet editions of the
  American Chemical Society journals
• DOI appears at the top of the HTML version of an
  article and at the bottom of the first page in
  its PDF version
• In the print editions
• DOI appears in the same location as in the PDF
  version.

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Cite Your Sources Properly

• Let the reader know whose thoughts are being
  used to make the point and provide the
  appropriate documentation
• Avoid plagiarism
• Do not copy someone elses work. Its fraud!
• No person shall submit as his own to an
  instructor any work which contains ideas or
  materials taken from another without full
  acknowledgment of the author the source.
  McKendree Colleges Academic Integrity Policy

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Strategies of Awareness Ethical and
Legal Issues

• Recognize the larger issues regarding information
  literacy. Ethical considerations do not
  vanish once you are finished with school.
  They deal with how you are perceived and
  judged in the real world at home, at work
  and professionally. After all, stealing is
  illegal, immoral unethical. Just ask an
  Enron manager.
• The information literate student understands the
  economic, legal, and social issues
  surrounding the use of information and
  accesses and uses information ethically and
  legally.
• Understanding the legal and ethical issues
  surrounding information is much more than
  plagiarism, the students "hot topic." Other
  significant aspects include the freedom of
  speech, privacy, intellectual property, fair use
  more.

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A Wide Variety of Styles

• Additional Formatting Assistance
• How Do I..?
• McKendree College Writing Center's Resources
• OWL's Using APA Style
• Documenting Online Resources
• Electronic Media and URLs
• General Forms for Electronic References
• Reference Examples for Electronic Source
  Materials
• Citations in Text of Electronic Material

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Need Help?
Visit the Writing Resource Center
Clark 201, 537-6858, writingcenter_at_mckendree
.edu

The Writing Resource Center helps writers help
themselves. They will not just proofread a
paper. Their job is, instead, to help students
become better writers. They offer help with the
following Developing invention
techniques Creating a good thesis Improving
organizational skills Improving audience
awareness Improving unity and
coherence Improving proofreading
skills Improving grammar skills Developing
sentence clarity Developing methods of
revision Improving research and documentation
skills