Basic Sources for Undergraduate Students (21:355:102): Home

Dear Students and Faculty:

This is a general research guide for undergraduates on the Newark Campus.  

Here are examples of other guides available for specific English 102 classes:

Bread Givers: Historical and Literary Background

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

Drown by Junot Diaz:  Contexts

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn:  A Research/Writing Experience

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Never Let Me Go

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry:  Historical and Cultural Background

Additional guides for English 102 and other courses can be found under COURSE GUIDES (NEWARK) or by searching keywords at the Rutgers research guides home page.

Faculty:  Please contact me at tipton@rutgers.edu to build a guide for your class.

Best regards,

Roberta Tipton

Rutgers RIOT, a quick video tutorial

Five fast modules on finding, evaluating, and using information.  You may look at them individually or all together.

Introduction to approaching a paper topic and using some of the basic services provided by the Rutgers University Libraries.  Includes several short videos.  More videos at http://libguides.rutgers.edu/videos.

Course Mission Statement

In the transition from high school/general reading and writing to scholarly/academic reading and writing, undergraduate students require a basic knowledge of scholarly sources for secondary research.   For many undergraduates this is the only formal introduction to scholarly secondary research that they will receive at Rutgers-Newark.  Material learned in this session can be applied in other classes where research writing is required.

Learning Goals

After this class, students will be able to:

• Explain at least one efficient approach to secondary research in the academic setting;
• Evaluate information sources;
• Find scholarly articles and other credible sources;
• Locate books in the Rutgers system;
• Prepare a quick bibliography in MLA style.

How Information Literacy Classes Support English 102 Learning Goals

Learning Goals: At the successful completion of English Composition 102, students should be able

...to engage and analyze increasingly complex and ambiguous ideas and readings of various academic disciplines through close textual analysis;

Through the information literacy sessions for English 102, novice researchers access academic literature in a wide variety of fields.

to create and construct sustained, analytical, argumentative essays that intellectually synthesize complex ideas and draw on multiple sources for support;

Students learn about searching and discovery of multiple, scholarly sources.

to conduct, evaluate, and incorporate research in support of independent interpretations;

Students learn how to find and evaluate sources that are potentially useful for supporting their own arguments.

to attribute and cite words and ideas from primary and secondary sources...

Students learn how to generate accurate lists of works cited from database output.

Missions and Standards Addressed

1. Support of University mission:

• providing for the instructional needs of New Jersey’s citizens through its undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs

2. Support of Campus mission:

• The academic mission of Rutgers University in Newark is to provide a first-rate education to an exceptionally diverse community of undergraduates and graduate students.

3. Association of College and Research Libraries.  ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework)

• Frame 4:  Research as Inquiry

"Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field."

"Novice learners acquire strategic perspectives on inquiry and a greater repertoire of investigative methods."

• Frame 6: Searching as Strategic Exploration

"Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops."

4. Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education: Requirements of Affiliation and Standards for Accreditation, [Online Version updated March 2009 at http://www.msche.org/publications/CHX06_Aug08REVMarch09.pdf ](p.42). 

The document states that "information literacy is an essential component of any educational program at the graduate or undergraduate levels."  Applicable skills on the Middle States list include the ability to:

• access information effectively and efficiently;
• evaluate critically the sources and content of information.

5. Information Literacy Progression Standards (VALE-NJLA) 

• Standard 2:  Accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.
• Standard 3:  Evaluates and thinks critically about information.
• Standard 4:  Uses information effectively for a specific purpose.
• Standard 5:  Uses information ethically and legally.