Research & Library Skills Exercises
Designed for Academic Writing Program Students
This page links to exercises that will help you prepare to conduct research for ENGL 101 - Academic Writing. Your course instructor may assign any or all of the exercises below.
For customized research tips, visit this guide: ENGL 101: Academic Writing
| 9 EXERCISES |
All of our exercises are now available as interactive PDF documents! This gives you the option to answer, save and email your exercises on the computer. You will need a recent version of PDF software such as Adobe Reader, which you can download for free.
Note: Please review our technical tips before you begin.
Brainstorming Concepts and Effective Search Strategies Revised!
This exercise is designed to walk students through the research process by having them break down a topic into concepts, brainstorming synonyms and creating basic search strategies using search (Boolean) connectors.
Choosing Databases Revised!
This exercise is designed to help students think critically about what kinds of information they are looking for and where they could find it.
Comparing Results from Search Engines Revised!
This exercise is designed to help students discover the types of information found in the following types of search engines: the Libraries� Catalog, Academic Search Premier and Google. The exercise Identifying Research Resources is an alternate approach to this material.
Evaluating Information Revised!
This exercise has students question the relative credibility of different elements in the information they find; those elements include: exigency, audience, and ethos/ authorship.
Scholarly vs Popular Sources Revised!
This exercise is designed to help students learn about the differences between scholarly and popular sources and how to tell the difference between these sources.
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Tips for working with interactive forms:
Be sure your PDF software has been recently updated, as some features will not work properly with older readers. The latest version of Adobe Reader is available for free download. These exercises are designed as interactive forms. Type your answers directly into the document or print it out and hand write your response. You can save your work to finish later, but be sure to save the file in a known location, and not in a temporary folder. If you wish to email your finished work to your instructor, remember to save your answers before creating the attachment. Having problems? Try downloading the latest version of your preferred PDF reader. Don't panic! Remember, you can always print and handwrite your answers. If you continue to experience problems after updating your software, please contact User Education Services to let us know. Tips for Foxit Users: Click the "Highlight fields" checkbox near the top of the screen to easily see all interactive areas. When you print your work, be sure that the "Print What" option is set to "Document and Annotations" to make your answers visible. |
