Posted: October 30th, 2020

English Question essay

Information Literacy Project 2 : Sources in Conversation

Name:

Instructions
Part 1:
This ILP aims to help you understand the ways in which sources often converse with one another in scholarly research. For this assignment, you’ll need to find and read one (1) scholarly article relevant to your research project. Next, find a central claim or piece of information in the article that uses a citation and is relevant to your research question. Then, locate this source in the bibliography of the article, and, using the library website, find and read it. So this will be TWO SOURCES TOTAL, one original source and one you find cited in that source. Only the original source has to be from a scholarly journal. Using your Everyday Writer if you have it, or Purdue Owl’s website if you don’t, cite both the original source and the source you selected from the original source in MLA format. Then, beneath the citations, explain how these two articles are related in roughly 150 words.

Part 2:
Complete each category for your original source only. You can format your answers as either a paragraph or bulleted list for each source; however, regardless of how you choose to format your answer, make sure you include analysis for each category. Your analysis for the entirety of Part 2 should be 200-400 words.
● Authority: How does the author assure the reader that the information presented is accurate and complete? Click through links, look up citations, or verify important facts in the article through a web search. Are the links, citations, or facts presented accurate and relevant? Look up other articles written by the same author or biographical information about the author. What are their credentials? What gives them the authority to speak on their topic?
● Bias: Explain the commitments of the author. What might they stand to gain from writing this article? Who is their audience, and how can you tell? What kinds of organizations, ideas, or beliefs do they associate themselves with? How do you know? Are multiple viewpoints presented and addressed, or only the viewpoints of the author?
● Context: Examine the website, journal, or other context in which the article is written and published. Is this context credible? How does this context assure the reader that the content it publishes is accurate and well-researched? What sort of sources does this context generally use (i.e., scholarly journals, popular press, twitter, etc.)? How do these factors shape your view of this context?
● Date: What is the date in which your article was published, and how much does this matter for your subject? Explain your reasoning.
Part 3:
Use the following questions to help guide your response as you compose a short research reflection that outlines what led you to your chosen source, how it affected your views on your topic, and the role it might play in your research project. You may need to look at your ILP 1 in order to answer some questions. Your analysis for the entirety of Part 3 should be 150-300 words.
● What steps did you go through to locate both articles? What kind of source is your original (i.e., more informative or argumentative) and how do you know this? What about your new source? Why did you select the second source that you did?
● What knowledge have you gained from reading these sources compared to the sources you looked at in ILP 1? How has this knowledge affected either your beliefs, what you thought your argument might be, or both? Explain.
● Will you use either or both source(s) in your project? Why or why not? Which parts of this source are most useful for your project and why? How does this source relate to the sources you found in ILP 1? (If it does not relate at all, explain why – has your project changed since you did your first ILP? Elaborate).

***Note: to start finding scholarly sources, check out the UofSC library databases: https://guides.library.sc.edu/az.php. Try Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, or a subfield’s database if you know your topic fits in one of those. Let me know if you need help with this step! You can also try Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/. To find out more about determining whether a source counts as scholarly/peer-reviewed/academic or not, check out this website: https://libraries.wsu.edu/how-do-i/determine-if-a-source-is-scholarly/#:~:text=The%20term%20scholarly%20typically%20means,which%20the%20article%20was%20published.