Students complete a handout on what kinds of sources (popular, professional, or scholarly) can meet particular information needs for a research project. Afterward, the instructor sums up the most important concepts.
Other activities in this series:Activity 3A, Information Needs; Activity 3B, Meeting Needs with Sources I; Activity 3D, Planning Your Sources I; Activity 3E, Planning Your Sources II; and Activity 3F, Using Source Locator
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- State which information needs can be met by popular, professional, or scholarly sources.
Relevant Threshold Concepts
- Authority is constructed and contextual.
- Information creation as a process.
Suggestions for Use
- This activity should be helpful in classes where students will be planning which kinds of sources they should consider for their research projects.
- Consider using this activity after Activity 2A, Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary?, Activity 2B, Who’s the Intended Audience?, Activity 3A, Information Needs, and Activity 3B, Meeting Needs With Sources I.
- Students can complete Handout 3C-1 electronically or in print.
Pre-Class Preparation
- Review the handout and answer key for this activity.
- Review In-Class Procedure below.
- Read Choosing and Using Sources, Chapter 3, Sources and Information Needs, if you haven’t already.
- Decide whether you want students to complete Handout 3C-1 on paper or electronically.
- If you decided on an electronic handout, put Handout 3C-1 in your learning management system.
- If you decided on paper copies, print Handout 3C-1 (1 copy per student and 1 for yourself) and Answer Key 3C-1 (1 copy for yourself).
- Consider assigning students to read Chapter 3, Sources and Information Needs, before class, if they haven’t already.
- Prepare to introduce the session, using your own remarks or In-Class Procedure, if it is helpful.
- Using Answer Sheet 3C-1, plan your discussion of the answers on the handout.
- Download and perhaps print In-Class Procedure and Answer Key 3C-1 so you can take them with you to class.
In-Class Procedure
- If you’re having students use printed copies of Handout 3C-1, pass them out or set them where students can pick them up as they come in.
- If you’re having students use an electronic Handout 3C-1, tell them how to find and open it.
- Introduce the session by telling students that today they will be learning which kinds of sources—popular, professional, or professional sources—can meet the information needs researchers have as they complete their research projects.
- Ask students to complete Handout 3C-1 by applying information elsewhere on the handout to answer questions 1-4 on the lower part of the handout. Give them a deadline of 5 minutes.
- After about 5 minutes, use Answer Key 3C-1 to go over the answers with students.
- Ask students why professional, and scholarly sources are so useful during the conduct of research projects, and popular sources less useful. Accept all reasonable answers, but if students don’t make these points, make them yourself: Professional and scholarly sources are more believable, more credible, because of who created them and the conditions under which they were created—often at a university and having been reviewed by other academics. On the other hand, popular sources are frequently important to disciplines in the arts. Even in disciplines other than the arts, popular sources can be used for background information and to convince your readers that your research question is important because they may be more expressive than professional and scholarly sources. But popular sources usually can’t be used to answer your research question or report what others have said about your research question or to try to convince others that your answer is right, which are the most important information needs in research projects.
- Conclude the discussion by saying something like, “So today you’ve learned which information needs of your research project can be met with popular, professional, and scholarly sources. That should be helpful when you look for sources.”
Relevant Choosing & Using Sources Chapters:
Chapter 3, Sources and Information Needs.
