Information Literacy
Determined_Student
Chapter10.docxInformation Literacy and Communication
Evaluate the Information You’ve Found
Communicate Information through Writing
Present in Class with Confidence
Use Information Literacy and Communication Skills at Work
Maciej Noskowski/Getty Images
When you start working on class assignments, is the information you need already in your head? When you sit down to write, do the words flow easily onto the page? When you deliver a presentation, do you calmly stroll up to the front of the room and then wow the crowd? These scenarios might happen occasionally (and isn’t it great when they do!). For most people, though, finding information and communicating it through writing and speaking are often difficult. Maybe you have trouble locating useful sources for a paper and clarifying your thoughts in writing, or you suffer from “stage fright” when giving presentations. If so, here’s good news: Although finding information and communicating it through writing and speaking take work, you can build these skills. Here’s even better news: College is the perfect place to do it.
As a college student, you’ll use these skills all the time. For example, you’ll probably have to write papers with references to outside sources and give class presentations. You’ll also use these skills in your job. Police officers, for instance, need to write reports and speak with authority during traffic stops and daily briefings. Civil engineers must record the results of structural tests or explain the design needs of a new bridge. Logistics managers for consumer-products companies have to know which products customers have ordered and which products are available, and then get customers those products on time. Many careers involve large amounts of information gathering, writing, and speaking (for example, criminal attorney, sales representative, or reporter). But to excel in almost every job, you’ll need to communicate effectively through one or both of these means.
The ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information is called information literacy. In this chapter we start by focusing on the first two components of information literacy: locating information and evaluating its quality. Then we move to its third component: communicating that information through writing and speaking. We explain how to navigate the writing process, avoid plagiarism, and give strong class presentations. Finally, we consider how you can use all these skills in your career. These concepts are closely linked to critical thinking, so throughout this chapter we note how you can use your higher-level thinking skills to track down information and communicate your ideas.
Reflect On Your Information Literacy and Communication Skills
Take a moment to reflect on your Information Literacy and Communication score on ACES. Find your score and fill in the blank below.
This score measures your beliefs about how well you can find and communicate information. Do you think it’s an accurate snapshot of your current skills in this area? Why or why not?
MY ACES SCORE: _____
· High
· Moderate
· Low
To find your Information Literacy and Communication score, go to the LaunchPad for Connections.
IF YOU SCORED IN THE HIGH RANGE and you’re confident that this score is accurate, you may excel at finding and communicating information effectively. This is great news, but don’t stop there: Use the information you find throughout this chapter to become an even stronger researcher and communicator. For example, learn how to track down new, reliable sources of information for research papers; take steps to sharpen your writing skills; or try out new tips for delivering a persuasive presentation.
IF YOU SCORED IN THE MODERATE OR LOW RANGE, seize the day! Use the strategies from this chapter and this course to grow as a researcher, writer, and speaker. With time, practice, and a positive attitude, you can build your skills and develop confidence in each of these three areas.
Develop Information Literacy
Meet Destiny, who is several weeks into her first term of college. She has two weeks to write a short paper for her political science class, and the paper must reference five academic sources. She isn’t sure where to start, so she Googles “dictatorship.” Instantly, she has pages and pages of information at her fingertips. As the options fill her screen, Destiny’s confidence grows — she’s well on her way to getting this paper done! She copies paragraphs from the first five Web sites that show up in her search results and pastes them into her paper. Since she knows that copying someone else’s work is cheating, she rewrites the paragraphs in her own words. She includes references to the sites where she got her information, as well as a few images to jazz things up. She feels good when she hands the paper in, but later she receives the bad news: She got a D. Confused and upset about what happened, she asks herself: What did I do wrong?
To answer this question, Destiny needs to understand information literacy. Information literacy includes a number of elements, but we’ll focus on three of the most essential: finding information, evaluating its quality, and effectively communicating it to others (see Figure 10.1 ).
Information Literacy: Finding information, evaluating its quality, and effectively communicating it to others.
Destiny had trouble with all three elements. First, she didn’t locate the type of information the assignment required (academic sources). Instead, she used the first sources that showed up in her Internet search, without considering whether they were appropriate for an academic paper. Second, she used the information without checking whether it was reliable. Third, the patchwork of paragraphs she stitched together from five different Web sites and then rephrased didn’t communicate a clear, smoothly flowing message.
Destiny wasn’t information literate, so she made some serious mistakes in her paper. But you don’t have to go down the same road. Let’s look closely at each element of information literacy, beginning with the first: where to find information.
FIGURE 10.1 Key Elements of Information Literacy
Video Resource: Information Literacy
Watch the video below
Find the Information You Need
To write a paper or create a presentation, you need to track down information. Where should you start? Try the library. Although the Internet may make libraries seem outdated, they’re hugely valuable: Not only do they contain countless resources, including many electronic ones, but they also have staff who can answer questions and help you find what you need. If you haven’t gone to the campus library yet, add a visit to your to-do list this term.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to be in the library to take advantage of its resources. Whether you’re sitting in the library itself, at your desk, or at your kitchen table, you can access the library’s Web site. From there, you can explore a wealth of physical and electronic resources you’ll need to write papers and complete assignments, including the following:
· Books. Books provide more depth and detail than many other information sources. Prominent book authors are usually experts in their subject matter, and they add credibility to your writing when you acknowledge, or cite, their ideas in a paper. Use the library Web site’s search tool to look for books by topic, title, or author. If the library doesn’t have a book you need, check whether an electronic version is available or whether you can borrow the book from another library.
Cite: To give another author credit when you include his or her ideas in your paper or project.
· Journal articles. Instructors and other experts often publish research findings, theories, and literature reviews in professional journals. Journal articles are typically peer-reviewed, meaning that other experts review, comment on, and approve the articles before they’re published. Peer review is part of the scientific process, and it helps to ensure that the journal’s information is useful and trustworthy. Journals are a good source for facts and other information you need. However, you might find it more difficult to read articles than books because articles are generally written for other professionals in the field.
· Newspapers and magazines. Information in newspapers and magazines is often timely because these periodicals are published more frequently than books or journals. Look to newspapers and magazines for descriptions of recent events or in-depth reporting. These articles have less technical detail than what you’ll find in journal articles, but they’re easier to read.
CONNECT TO MY CAREER
To learn more about a career that interests you, find and read one article in a peer-reviewed journal or professional magazine related to this career. (For example, a geology major might read the Journal of Geophysical Research.) What was most intriguing about the article you chose?
· Encyclopedias, archives, and historical documents. Encyclopedias provide broad overviews of many topics and are a good starting place for gathering basic information. Archives and historical documents can also be valuable sources of information. For instance, to write her paper on dictatorships, Destiny might have quoted from or described part of the Declaration of Independence.
· Databases. Using databases on your library’s Web site, you can find collections of journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles, videos, government reports, and images on specific topics. If Destiny had started with databases rather than with Google, she could have found articles about dictatorships from highly respected sources such as the Journal of International Affairs and the Economist. Many libraries organize their databases by field, so you can search by specific topics of interest.
· Course reserves. Some instructors create a set of physical or electronic readings for a course that students can access through the library’s Web site. When your instructor puts extra time into making these materials available, you know that he or she considers the information important, so be sure to take advantage of them.
Information Treasure Trove. Libraries are great places to find the information you need to write a paper or craft a presentation. Not only are they packed with books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and online tools for tracking down an array of sources, but they also have librarians who are trained to help you find information. So visit your library today. iStock/© Rayman/Getty Images
Video Resource: Research and Using the Internet
Watch the video below
Evaluate the Information You’ve Found
Once you’ve found information, you need to evaluate its quality. Evaluation is a key component of critical thinking because it requires higher-level thinking skills. To prompt reflection and analysis, ask yourself questions such as “Can I trust what I’m reading right now?”
In some ways, evaluating the quality of the information you find is like examining the quality of ingredients when you’re baking. Just as you wouldn’t put a rotten apple into a pie, you don’t want to include weak or questionable information in your papers. Recognizing bad information isn’t as easy as picking out a rotten apple, but the strategies in this section can help.
Basic Quality
Ask some simple questions about the basic quality of the information. When looking at a book, check the name of the publisher. Have you heard of the company? Does the publisher have a well-developed Web site? With the rise of self-publishing, anyone can write and print a book.
If you’re examining a journal article in the library, see if it includes a list of professionals who edit and review articles for the journal. If you’ve found an article through your library’s Web site or another online database, do a quick search to make sure the journal is peer-reviewed.
When you’re evaluating Web sites, trustworthy sources will clearly state who maintains the site and will often be linked to other well-known, respected sites. Sites ending in .edu or .org may be more appropriate for research purposes than .com sites.
Author Credibility
To determine an author’s credibility, investigate the answers to these questions: Do you recognize the author’s name? Has your instructor referred to the author in class, or does the author’s name appear in your textbook? What can you find out about the author’s background and credentials? Is he or she an expert on the topic? As you read the source, ask yourself how well the author has covered the topic. Does he or she seem well informed?
“I just real an online article that says you should never believ anything you read online.” Online Articles: Trustworthy — or Not? It’s important to think critically about any information you read, but it’s especially important to evaluate information published online. Why? Because anyone can post anything they want — without undergoing a peer-review process. So put extra care into assessing an online article’s trustworthiness. © CartoonstockDescription
Objectivity
Quality sources maintain objectivity by presenting all sides of an issue. If the author has a particular bias, he or she should make that known. For instance, politically conservative or liberal writers should be up-front about their views. A bias doesn’t mean that the author’s writing is flawed or useless, but you do need to be aware of it and consider how well the author has supported his or her views. If the author merely states a biased view without backing it up, you probably shouldn’t include this information in your paper or presentation.
Currency
Check the publication date of books and journals. How current is the information you’re evaluating? How current does it need to be? A description of the Internet written in the mid-1990s might be a great resource for a project on the history of the Internet, but not for a project focused on today’s Internet-related issues. Also check the dates of the citations in articles or books. If the dates of the citations are close to the article’s or book’s date of publication, the authors were using current information. With Web sites, look for the dates when articles were posted and for references to more recent events so that you can see whether the content is refreshed regularly. However, don’t assume that older content is worthless; a thirty-year-old book for a geology class might still be a good source if it’s an important work in the field.
Wikipedia
Using information from Wikipedia in papers and presentations is a controversial topic on college campuses. 1 Information on Wikipedia might be inaccurate or purposefully misleading because anyone can edit content on the site. The people making revisions may or may not be experts on the content they’re altering. With peer-reviewed journal articles or edited textbooks, on the other hand, people who are experts on the subject matter have read and reviewed the information. Peer review doesn’t guarantee complete accuracy, but it does make the information more trustworthy than content in Wikipedia articles.
Before you use Wikipedia, follow two rules of thumb. First, investigate the wealth of electronic resources available through your library. Second, ask your instructors for their thoughts about the site. Some may tell you to avoid Wikipedia altogether. Others may say that you can use it as a starting point for research on a topic, but only if you confirm the information through other sources.
Video Resource: Evaluating Online Sources
Watch the video below
Communicate Information through Writing
As you’ve likely seen for yourself, almost every college course includes some type of writing assignment, from essay questions and research papers to creative writing and lab reports. Why do instructors assign so much writing? It’s not to torture you — remember, they have to read all the papers they assign! Rather, writing assignments help instructors answer two important questions: (1) Do my students understand the key concepts we’re covering in class? and (2) Can they think critically about the material? You use all aspects of critical thinking — gathering, evaluating, and applying information, as well as reviewing outcomes — when you write in college. The strategies in this section can help you apply those skills to your writing assignments.
Prepare to Write
Preparing effectively for your writing assignment will help you stay on track later when you write the first draft and make revisions. As you read this section on preparation, think back to Destiny’s experience. If you had fourteen days to write a paper on dictatorships, how would you prepare?
Clarify Your Purpose. When you understand why you’re writing — your purpose — you can more easily organize the information and ideas in your written piece and focus on the points you want to convey. Consider these different purposes for writing:
· To inform. One reason for writing is to inform the reader about a particular topic. Most of your papers in college will serve this purpose, including research reports, annotated bibliographies, review papers, and lab reports.
· To persuade. In persuasive writing, you might start by conveying information about a topic and then seek to persuade your reader to view the topic in a particular way. Editorial assignments in a journalism class, policy papers in a government course, or advertising plans in a marketing course fit into this category.
· To express or entertain. In expressive writing or writing for entertainment, you convey your thoughts and ideas or tell stories to enlighten an audience. Examples include writing poems or short stories for a literature course, plays for a theater course, and song lyrics for a music course.
Make a Plan. Writing assignments often take longer than you expect, so schedule plenty of time to complete them. Plan out each part of the process: preparing, writing your first draft, revising, and polishing. As an example, see Figure 10.2 , which is a schedule for a short research paper (about two to five pages). Not only does it build in time to write the first draft, but it also includes seven and a half hours of preparation (reading, researching, and outlining) and then four and a half hours of revising and polishing. While not everyone spends the same amounts of time on each part of the process, significant chunks of time are usually required for each step. Building a plan helps you manage and get the most from that time.
The Magic of Writing. Anything you write has a purpose, such as informing, persuading, or entertaining. When J. K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series, she set out to entertain her readers. And entertain she did — so much so that people waited in line until midnight to get the next volumes in the series. Some fans, like this one, even dressed up as characters from the books. Lisa Maree Williams/Stringer/Getty Images
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Monday, 6:00–8:00 p.m. |
Read/Research: Find two journal articles and two book chapters. Read and take notes from one journal article. |
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Tuesday, 9:00–10:00 a.m. |
Read/Research: Read and take notes from second article. |
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Wednesday, 1:00–4:00 p.m. |
Read/Research: Read and take notes from both book chapters. Find additional articles or chapters if necessary. |
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Saturday, 9:00–10:30 a.m. |
Outline: Write an outline for the paper. |
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Sunday, 9:00–11:00 a.m. |
Write draft 1: Use outline to write first draft. |
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Tuesday, 8:00–9:30 a.m. |
Revise to create draft 2: Review and edit draft 1. |
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Wednesday, 1:00–3:00 p.m. |
Revise to create draft 3: Review and edit draft 2. Ask a friend to read and provide feedback. |
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Thursday, 6:00–7:00 p.m. |
Polish: Use feedback to make last edits and polish draft 3 (final draft) several days before it’s due. Schedule time over weekend to celebrate hard work! |
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Monday, 8:00 a.m. |
Hand in final draft |
FIGURE 10.2 Sample Plan for Each Step in the Paper-Writing Process
Choose a Topic. For some writing assignments, your instructor will give you a topic. For others, you can choose a topic. If you can choose your own topic and need inspiration, think about what you’ve found interesting in class, ask your instructor for ideas from previous terms, or talk with your classmates about how they chose a topic. You can also explore different ideas for paper topics by rereading your textbook and looking for the articles and books it cites, or by reviewing suggested readings listed in your course syllabus. Picking an interesting topic will help you stay motivated during the writing process.
Conduct Research. Researching your topic gives you a chance to put your information literacy skills to work by finding information and evaluating it. You can conduct research for all types of projects, although informative writing often requires more research than persuasive, expressive, or entertaining writing.
When you’re researching, tap into the wide range of sources described earlier in this chapter, and use your critical thinking skills. Remember to evaluate what you’re reading by asking yourself:
· Does the author’s argument make sense?
· Is it credible?
· Are there alternative arguments worth considering?
When you evaluate information you’ve found through research, you point out problems with an argument or provide alternative arguments. Then, when you write your paper, you can include your questions and evaluation in the draft.
For example, let’s say you’re writing a short paper on drowning deaths for a public health class. You’ve found an article whose author claims that eating ice cream causes drowning. The author backs up this claim with numbers showing that ice-cream consumption and drowning rates increase together. If you neglected to use your critical thinking skills, you might say, “Makes sense — people eat ice cream, get cramps, and drown.” But if you had your critical thinking hat on, you would be open to alternative explanations, such as this one: Both swimming (and hence drowning) and eating ice cream increase during the warmer summer months. So, although it may appear that one event causes the other, something else — the warm weather — is actually causing both events to increase. The point? Don’t unthinkingly accept the viewpoints you come across in your research. Rather, think critically before you take what you read as fact.
Create an Outline. An outline helps you organize your ideas before you start writing. You can use it to sketch out the structure of your entire paper and ensure that you have all the required components of the assignment, such as an introduction, citations (if required), main and supporting ideas, and a conclusion. The sample outline in Figure 10.3 has two levels of headings, but you can add as many headings and as much detail as you want. You can also include examples or quotations that you plan to use in your paper — or you can keep it simple and leave such details for the writing step. For more on the benefits of outlining, see the Spotlight on Research.
FIGURE 10.3 Sample OutlineDescription
Spotlight on Research
Create an Outline to Improve Your Writing
Can creating an outline improve the quality of your written work? According to an experiment conducted by researcher Ronald Kellogg, the answer is “yes!” In his study, college students read arguments for and against outfitting city buses with equipment to serve individuals with disabilities. Then they wrote a paper in which they expressed support for the idea. Some students were instructed to create an outline first, while others were told to just start writing. Researchers then examined the length of the paper, the time spent writing, the writing speed, and the writing quality.
What did they discover? Students who created an outline before writing
· Wrote longer papers than those who didn’t create an outline (an average of 139 more words).
· Spent more time writing (about seven minutes longer).
· Wrote faster (11.3 compared to 8.5 words per minute).
· Produced papers that were rated as higher quality by two judges.
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Outline |
No outline |
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Length of paper |
+ (longer) |
– (shorter) |
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Writing time |
+ (more) |
– (less) |
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Writing speed |
+ (faster) |
– (slower) |
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Overall quality |
+ (higher) |
– (lower) |
Creating an outline has a positive impact on writing.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Creating an outline can result in greater productivity during the writing process and a higher-quality paper — and, therefore, improved performance in college.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. How often do you create an outline before writing a paper or other assignment?
2. If you’ve never created an outline, will you do so in the future? Why or why not?
3. After reading about this study, what would you tell a friend about the value of outlining?
R. T. Kellogg, “Attentional Overload and Writing Performance: Effects of Rough Draft and Outline Strategies,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 14 (1988): 355–65.
Write Your First Draft
Once you’ve taken time to prepare, you’re ready to write your first draft. For some students, all the preparation makes this part easy. For others, writing a draft can be intimidating or overwhelming. If you find it challenging to get started, think of writing like rolling a boulder down a hill: The hardest part is the first push to get the massive object moving. Once you put those first few words on paper, the rest of the process comes more easily. As you sit down to write, use the techniques in this section to craft a strong draft.
Writer’s Block? Just Start! You’ve done your research and created an outline for your paper. Now it’s time to write your first draft, but that blank page is terrifying. What do you do? The best way to get started is to just begin writing. Once you get a few words down, the rest will flow more easily. Jenny Sturm/Shutterstock
Develop a Thesis Statement. A thesis statement is the main idea or argument you want to convey, and it sets the stage for your entire paper. You can create your thesis at various points in the writing process. You might draft it during your research to organize your thoughts, and include it in your outline to provide clarity to that document. Or you might choose to write a thesis statement once your research and outline are done.
Thesis: The main idea or argument of a paper or an essay.
How you word your thesis depends on your writing purpose. For example, if you write a thesis statement about SMART goals, it might vary according to purpose.
· To inform: Learn how to set and achieve your goals using SMART criteria.
· To persuade: You should try SMART goals to improve your note-taking skills.
· To express: This is how I used a SMART goal to improve my note-taking skills and succeed in college.
Craft an Engaging Introduction. Grab your reader’s attention right from the start by creating a compelling introduction to your paper. Imagine, for example, that you’re writing an essay on hunger. A perfectly serviceable — but dull — introductory sentence might read: “Hunger is a serious problem in the United States.” Compare that statement with this one: “One out of the next six people you meet will go to bed hungry tonight.” Wouldn’t that second sentence make you want to keep reading much more than the first?
Think Critically. You’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate your critical thinking skills many times as you write your draft. Here are just a few examples of how you can incorporate critical thinking into the writing process.
· Provide evidence. Incorporate citations and ideas from your sources into your draft. A paper on poverty that simply says “poverty is bad” shows you haven’t really thought about your topic. But if you include statistics on the number of children in poverty who go to school hungry each day, you’ll demonstrate that you found and applied evidence. Just be sure to credit others when you use their ideas to support your point.
· Interpret information and draw conclusions. As you write, interpret and draw conclusions from the information you’re working with, and incorporate these into your paper. For instance, suppose that a key source for your paper is an article about how national economies have become increasingly interconnected. You could think up three of your own examples showing the impact of globalization and work these into your draft. Then, at the end of the paper, you could identify what you see as the positive or negative effects of globalization.
· Compare and contrast. If appropriate for the writing assignment, describe similarities and differences between topics. For instance, for a political science class, you might compare and contrast the reasons the United States entered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
· Generate new ideas. For some writing, you’ll have an opportunity to generate original ideas — for example, in forms such as poetry, essays, or short stories in an English class, or by brainstorming new ways to use an existing product or tool in a design or engineering class.
CONNECT TO MY CLASSES
You’ll use your critical thinking skills in every writing assignment in college. Select an upcoming assignment in this or another class, and write three or four sentences describing how you’ll demonstrate critical thinking as you complete that assignment.
Structure Your Paragraphs Carefully. When you’re writing, pay attention to how you structure each paragraph. The most common approach is to start with the main idea and then follow it with supporting ideas, examples, facts, or details. Focus on only one main idea in each paragraph; start a new paragraph as soon as you begin writing about another main idea.
Add a Conclusion. End your draft with a conclusion that pulls your thoughts together. A strong conclusion restates your thesis, revisits the major findings or recommendations of your paper, or summarizes your argument. To come full circle, you might even connect the concluding paragraph to the catchy introduction you created at the start of your paper.
Revise and Polish Your Paper
Once you’ve written a first draft of your paper, it’s time to revise and polish it. Consider these ideas for editing and finalizing your work.
· Include transitions. Transitions connect your paragraphs and smooth the flow of ideas throughout your entire work. (For instance, the first sentence under the heading “Revise and Polish Your Paper” serves as a transition from the preceding section.) If your paper sounds choppy, adding transitions between paragraphs can help.
· Use a formatting and style guide. The MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association) have established guidelines for formatting papers and citing sources. These style guides will help you with some of the “nuts and bolts” of writing a paper — such as the format to use for the title page, line spacing, margins, paragraph indents, headings, page numbers, and citation style. Including citations is especially important for avoiding plagiarism, which occurs when you use someone else’s work and call it your own (more on this later in the chapter). Ask your instructor or check your syllabus to determine which style guide you should use.
· Read your paper out loud. You can identify language that sounds awkward and then revise as needed to make your writing more fluid.
· Have someone else read your paper. Ask a friend or classmate to give you honest feedback. Someday you can return the favor.
· Use campus resources. Use any resources your school offers to help with writing. Make an appointment at the writing center, work with a tutor, or ask your instructor to review a draft of your writing.
Voices of Experience: Student
Getting Feedback on Your Writing
Courtesy of Michael J. Wicht
NAME: Ashley J. Willey
SCHOOLS: Highland Community College; University of Nebraska
MAJOR: Advertising and Public Relations
CAREER GOAL: Copy Writing
“I enjoy being critiqued by as many people as possible, and I find it helpful to gain multiple perspectives.”
I’ve learned that the best way to become a good writer is to read good books. These books inspire me to try to emulate as many styles as possible until my own style shines through. I find myself playing around with different narration styles that I would typically never have used. I’m also blessed to have had a very good English professor, who taught me how to appreciate the knowledge I’ve gained and encouraged me to use methods of revision that have been amazing learning tools for me.
One of the best things I’ve done as a writer is to attend creative writing workshops. I enjoy being critiqued by as many people as possible, and I find it helpful to gain multiple perspectives. It’s important to go to your professors for their opinion, and not only to other students. Your professors are professionals who can provide you with the most experienced, educated opinion. I follow their advice to the best of my ability, until I get feedback that my work is creating the impression that I was aiming for. This allows me to learn from my mistakes and perfect my craft.
I’m comfortable building professional relationships with my professors and going to them after hours for advice. I’m not ashamed to ask for help, because I know that my professors are there for me. Many students fail to take advantage of the many resources available in the college setting because they’re closed off and are so focused on their goals that they miss out on opportunities. I’m getting my degree not for me but, ultimately, for my daughter. In order to go to college, I first had to obtain my GED without the help of my daughter’s father, who was not supportive of my obtaining my education. I began community college as a single mother and am now attending the University of Nebraska. I want to set the bar as high as I possibly can for my daughter.
YOUR TURN: Have you used any of the approaches that Ashley describes for improving your writing? If so, which ones? How useful have these approaches been? Have you found any other approaches helpful?
· Polish and proofread. Once you’ve revised your draft several times to address macro-level issues of structure, flow, and clarity, give your written piece a final polish. Then step away from your paper and take a break, returning with fresh eyes to revisit and proofread it carefully. Fix any spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and make sure it reads just as you want it to.
CONNECT TO MY RESOURCES
Your campus probably has a wide variety of resources that can help you improve your writing. Find and write down the name, location, and hours of a writing resource at your campus.
Write in Online Classes
You can use the strategies we’ve just explored to write papers in both face-to-face and online classes. However, some additional techniques can be especially helpful for writing online. Online classes are more likely to include writing assignments such as blog posts or written comments on other students’ posts. Your posts and comments will be graded, so you want to make sure they’re high quality. To do so, try these tips.
· Write in complete sentences. Shorthand and slang are fine for Facebook and Twitter, but use more formal and thoughtful language when writing for your online classes.
· Writing posts in online classes can feel conversational — there is a back-and-forth exchange of information — but remember that in online conversations you don’t have nonverbal cues and tone to provide context, so the tone you had in mind doesn’t always come through. As you type posts for online classes, read them out loud and listen to how they sound. Could readers interpret your tone in a more negative way than you intended? If so, rephrase your comments so that they’re more positive and constructive.
· Pay attention to your emotions and how quickly you respond in these classes. If you’re having a heated discussion on a controversial topic, consider writing out your post on a piece of paper and coming back to it twenty minutes later to make sure it conveys your message appropriately.
Video Resource: Writing A
Watch the video below
Avoid Plagiarism
Cheating and plagiarism are very serious issues in college, and research suggests that rates of these forms of academic misconduct are increasing. 2 In the chapter on taking exams, we explore how to approach test taking with integrity by answering questions yourself and being careful not to cheat. When it comes to writing, honest students take care to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when one person uses another person’s words or ideas and presents them as his or her own. In some cases, plagiarism is intentional. When a student takes a paper off the Internet, puts his or her own name on it, and turns it in, that’s a clear case of plagiarism. When a student knowingly copies information into a paper without putting it in quotation marks and citing the original author of the information, that’s also intentional plagiarism.
Plagiarism: When one person presents another person’s words or ideas as his or her own.
CONNECT TO MY CLASSES
Plagiarism can have serious consequences. Examine the syllabi for your courses. Find and write down the consequences of plagiarism as listed on one of your course syllabi. List any additional consequences you can think of that aren’t shown on the syllabus you’ve selected.
But plagiarism isn’t always intentional. Let’s say a student copies a sentence from a source and puts it in his paper, planning to go back later to credit the author, but then forgets. Is this plagiarism? At many schools the answer would be “yes”; often, instructors don’t distinguish between intentional and unintentional plagiarism. If you do get caught plagiarizing, whether you meant to plagiarize or not, you may have to rewrite your paper. Even worse, you might automatically fail the course, have to meet with the dean of your college, or even be expelled.
We assume that since you’re in college, you value your education and will honor your values by not plagiarizing intentionally. But what’s your best defense against accidental plagiarism? Develop good research and writing habits: Find out how your instructors want you to use citations in your paper; use a style guide; and apply the following strategies.
· Take notes in your own words. When reading books, articles, or original documents, avoid copying large sections of material. Instead, paraphrase these sources (see the chapter on note taking) by taking notes in your own words, and then use these notes to write your paper. Give credit to the original author by citing the source where you got the information.
· Use quotation marks for direct quotations. If you use someone else’s exact words, which you should do only in moderation, always use quotation marks and cite the source from which you took the quotation.
· Keep track of where your information comes from. You might use one color of ink to copy a sentence from a book and a different color for your own words. Be consistent so that you always know which notes and ideas are yours and which are others’.
· When in doubt, give credit. If you aren’t sure whether you need to cite a source, err on the side of caution and include the citation to the original work.
· At the end of your paper, include a bibliography or reference list. This list shows that you’ve done research and that you’re giving appropriate credit for the ideas in your paper.
· Seek guidance. If you have any concerns, ask your instructor or someone from the campus writing center to review your paper before it’s due and give you some guidance on avoiding unintentional plagiarism.
Present in Class with Confidence
Speaking in front of a group — for a solo class presentation, for example, or as part of a team project — is a skill that colleges consider part of a well-rounded education and that employers value. 3 Just as writing a paper does, authoring and delivering a speech demonstrates your understanding of course content and also shows off your critical thinking skills: To speak intelligently about a topic, you have to gather information about it, evaluate that information, use it in your presentation, and then afterward review the outcomes of your talk — all key components of critical thinking.
As valuable a skill as public speaking is, however, for many people it’s utterly terrifying. What can you do if the thought of standing in front of the class gives you stomach butterflies and sweaty palms? You can practice and build your skills to increase your confidence. It won’t happen overnight, but any student can become a successful public speaker.
Know Your Purpose — and Your Audience
To begin, give yourself plenty of time to plan your presentation. Use that time to figure out the purpose of the presentation and the major points you want to make. For example, if you have to demonstrate a medical procedure in your nursing class, you may design your presentation to inform your audience about how to perform the procedure. If you’re going to show a new smartphone application you developed in your mobile computing class, your purpose may be to persuade classmates that the app is worthwhile. You might even perform a one-act play to entertain classmates in your drama course.
To plan your presentation properly, you also need to consider your audience. Ask yourself:
· How many people will be there? If you’re presenting to a small group (fewer than thirty people), you can move around the room and involve your audience. You can pose questions, have listeners complete tasks and report back to the larger group, or even stimulate discussion among audience members. With larger groups, this interactive style is more difficult, so you may decide to spend your time addressing the audience as a whole.
· How much do they know about your topic? If your topic is new to the audience, share what you’ve learned while researching your presentation. If your topic is covered in the textbook, your listeners probably know the basics, so use your presentation to provide new information or discuss the topic in more depth.
· How can you capture the audience’s interest? Brainstorm ideas for grabbing your audience’s attention at the start of your presentation — for example, by developing a funny (and tasteful) anecdote or joke, a personal story, or an example that will engage the audience while also setting the stage for your topic.
Delivering a Slam-Dunk Talk. Top-notch speakers know their audience. Here, the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers is surrounded by reporters, but he knows they’re only part of his audience. The other part is made up of people who read articles in which he’s quoted, listen to his comments on the radio, or watch video of him on news outlets. Is he nervous? Probably a little. © USA Today Sports
Craft Your Presentation
Many of the same strategies you use to write papers can also help you create presentations. Like written work, most presentations have a thesis statement, an intriguing introduction, a well-structured multipart argument, and a clear conclusion. As with papers, you’ll develop several drafts of your presentation as you work to create the finished product.
Presentations usually use more visual aids than written pieces do, so consider what types of visuals will strengthen your message. You can use slides containing text and images (PowerPoint and Prezi are popular slide-creation tools) or physical objects that demonstrate a process (such as taking blood pressure) or clarify a key concept (such as how electrons move during a chemical reaction). As you weigh your options, pay attention to the visuals your instructors use in class, and consider your own preferences. What types of visuals capture your attention the most? Whatever visuals you decide to include, keep in mind that such aids work best when they convey main ideas and aren’t overly complex (see Figure 10.4 ).
Practice Your Presentation
Fear of speaking in public is very common, 4 and practicing your presentation is the best way to become more comfortable, confident, and calm. Once you’ve crafted your presentation, rehearse it several times to polish the following elements of your talk:
· Time. Work to stay within the time limit. If you have twenty minutes to speak, for example, try keeping your talk between fifteen and seventeen minutes as you practice. That way, you’ll know that your presentation isn’t too short or too long, and you’ll have a few minutes left for questions from your audience.
· Voice volume. Make sure you’re speaking loudly enough. If you’ll be using a microphone to give your presentation, practice talking at the same volume you’d use when sitting next to another person. If you won’t have a microphone, practice speaking loudly enough so that people at the back of the room can hear you. And vary the volume and pace of your voice to keep everyone energized — speaking in a monotone is a surefire way to put your audience to sleep.
FIGURE 10.4 Lecture Slides: Cluttered and Clean A text-heavy slide (left) is more effective when it’s been pared down, broken into bullets, and jazzed up with an image (right). Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock
· Body language. Practice showing confidence and authority through your posture and other body language. Stand up straight, make eye contact, and imagine conversing with your audience — glancing only briefly at your notes or slides if needed. Also practice using hand gestures to emphasize points, and avoid nervous gestures that will distract your audience (like tugging at your hair or wringing your hands).
To practice your presentation, consider asking trusted friends, colleagues, or classmates to watch you. They can provide feedback on how you can improve. Or record your practice sessions on your smartphone or computer and critique your own performance. It may be hard to hear critical feedback or watch yourself on video, but these techniques will help you strengthen your presentation — and boost your confidence.
Stage-Fright Antidote. Would you give a toast at your best friend’s wedding without rehearsing it beforehand? Probably not. So why would you give a class presentation without practicing it first? Rehearsing can give you the confidence you need to fight stage fright. That way, you can focus on delivering your message. Lucy Clark/Shutterstock
Deliver a Great Presentation
When the big day arrives, you can do several things to present successfully.
· Look the part. Even if your appearance isn’t factored into your official grade for the presentation, your instructor and audience will notice what you’re wearing. So, approach class presentations as you would a job interview. Ditch the shorts and flip-flops in favor of business casual or nicer clothes. Professional apparel gives you an air of credibility and conveys to your audience that you take the assignment seriously.
· Arrive early. By arriving early, you’ll have time to get set up and organize your presentation, notes, and any materials you plan to use.
· Breathe and visualize. Take deep breaths and visualize yourself being successful. Settling your nerves in advance will help you deliver a smooth presentation.
Harness the Power of Technology: Present Online
Increasingly, online classes require students to prepare presentations and deliver them using technology tools such as videoconferencing. Many of the strategies for giving successful presentations also apply to online presentations, but you may have to master some new technology skills to make your presentation a success — for example, adding narration to a slide presentation or setting up conferencing tools such as Skype or WebEx on your laptop. If you have concerns about using any required technology to deliver your online presentation, ask your instructor for help. And be sure to schedule some extra time during the preparation phase to try out any technology and make sure it’s running smoothly.
Use Information Literacy and Communication Skills at Work
The information literacy and communication skills you build in college will be valuable assets after you graduate. Not only will you use them during the job-application process, but they’re also important for accomplishing tasks and sharing your ideas with others once you’re on the job.
Sell Yourself to Potential Employers
No matter what your occupation, being able to write and speaking intelligently about your own skills and experiences can help you “sell” yourself to potential employers. You’ll likely need to write a résumé and a cover letter as part of the job-application process and to go on interviews. If you have weak writing and speaking skills, you’ll find it hard to convince potential employers that you’re the ideal candidate. In addition, many organizations ask employees to complete an annual self-evaluation, which often involves writing and presenting a summary of your accomplishments. You’ll need information literacy skills in order to pull together, evaluate, and present that information.
Work with Information Effectively
Information literacy and communication skills can help you work with information effectively once you’re on the job. In fact, in a recent survey employers listed oral communication, writing, and information literacy as three of the top six skills colleges should emphasize for new graduates. 5 Look at Table 10.1 for ideas about how people in various occupations might use the skills in this chapter. Then ask yourself: “How will I use them in my desired field?”
Communicate Your Great Ideas
Your experiences on the job can inspire you to develop big, creative ideas — for example, plans for new products that will boost sales or new processes that will increase efficiency. To showcase your creativity or share your ideas, you need to communicate them verbally or in writing. For example, if you’re a software developer, you might give a presentation about how your new app will revolutionize social networking. As an astronomer, you might write a scientific paper to detail your discovery of a distant galaxy. When you know how to express your ideas effectively, you can make a meaningful contribution to your company or organization, your community, your customers — and even your own professional development.
TABLE 10.1 Using Information Literacy and Communication Skills in Different Careers
|
Career |
Example |
|
Nonprofit campaign manager |
Research past campaigns, identify best practices used by successful campaigns, and communicate ideas for a new campaign to the project team. |
|
Computer systems administrator |
Find and evaluate software options in response to a new security threat. Write a report describing the benefits and drawbacks of each option. |
|
Soil conservationist |
Collect soil samples, analyze them, and write a report documenting your findings. |
|
Radiologic technologist |
Stay up-to-date on scanning procedures, explain them to patients, and direct patients’ actions during scans. |
Voices of Experience: Employee
Managing and Communicating Information
Courtesy of Matthew Mahler
NAME: Matt Mahler
PROFESSION: Production Supervisor
SCHOOL: Southern New Hampshire University
DEGREE: Associate of Arts
MAJOR: General Studies
“Clearly communicating information . . . helped improve the efficiency of the factory and cut our mistakes down to nearly zero.”
Writing and communicating were among my strongest areas in college, and I continue to use these skills on the job. Before my recent promotion to Production Supervisor, I served as the Interim Production Manager at the bread factory where I work. Obtaining ingredient information, determining its quality, and creating a way to manage and then communicate that information were all skills I used to do my job.
Before I took this position, people had to guess how many ingredients to order each week, and this caused us to fall short a lot. The ordering process was also problematic, as orders were written on a form and faxed to the supplier. To improve the quality of information we were working with, I started using Excel to track our daily ingredient usage to be more precise in weekly ingredient ordering. I also changed the ordering procedure: I e-mailed our order, which eliminated the problem of lost or unreadable faxes and created a record of our weekly orders.
Closely monitoring ingredient usage also helped me communicate more effectively with the mixers. I could see when there was an overscaling of ingredients, and I had tangible data to show the mixers while I coached them. Being able to quantify the ingredients that were being overscaled into dollar amounts gave the mixers a clear picture of what was happening and how important it was to avoid waste.
Overall, managing information and then clearly communicating information to my production team and supplier helped improve the efficiency of the factory and cut our mistakes down to nearly zero.
YOUR TURN: If you’re currently employed, what kinds of information do you need to find, and in what ways do you communicate that information? If you’re not employed but have a particular career in mind, how will knowing how to find and communicate information help you excel in that career?
Description
Click above to access My Personal Success Plan.
Click above to access My Personal Success Plan.
Chapter Review
Chapter Summary
In this chapter you learned about information literacy and communication skills. Revisit the following key points, and reflect on how you can use this information to support your success now and in the future.
· Information literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information through writing or speaking.
· Information sources include books, journal articles, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, databases, and course reserves.
· Critically evaluating the quality of information involves considering whether your source is credible, objective, and current.
· Preparing to write includes clarifying your purpose, scheduling time for each step in the writing process, selecting a topic that interests you, using your information literacy skills to read and research, and creating an outline.
· A well-written piece has a clear thesis, an engaging introduction, focused paragraphs with smooth transitions, and a strong conclusion. It also meets requirements for proper formatting and citations and is polished and free from grammatical errors.
· Writing in college requires you to demonstrate your critical thinking skills by, for example, providing evidence, interpreting information, drawing conclusions, comparing and contrasting, and generating new ideas.
· In your online classes, you can communicate effectively by keeping your blog posts professional and providing constructive comments on discussion boards.
· Plagiarism occurs when one person takes credit for another person’s words or ideas, accidentally or deliberately. By citing sources and developing good research and writing habits, you can avoid plagiarism.
· Creating a strong classroom presentation involves planning what you want to say, crafting the content, practicing thoroughly, and taking steps to prepare yourself the day of the presentation. In online classes, it also involves using technology tools such as videoconferencing.
· Information literacy and communication skills can help you excel in your career by enabling you to “sell” yourself during the job-application process, work with information effectively on the job, and communicate your ideas.
Chapter Activities
Journal Entry
SPEAKING IN PUBLIC
Describe an experience in which you spoke in public. It might have been a persuasive speech you delivered to classmates, a sales pitch to customers, a pep talk to the soccer team, or a proposal to the city council. How did this experience affect your feelings about public speaking? What strengths do you have as a public speaker? What are your opportunities for growth as a public speaker? How can you use your college experience to enhance your public-speaking skills?
Adopting a Success Attitude
OVERCOMING WRITER’S BLOCK
For some people, negative thinking and self-doubt can create a mental block, making it difficult to even begin writing an assigned paper. If this happens to you, try using freewriting to break through this writer’s block. With freewriting, you write as much as you can about a specific topic for a set period of time without any constraints. Let’s give it a try.
Sit down at a computer and type your topic at the top of the page (or write it on a piece of paper). You may want to choose a topic that relates to a writing assignment for another class. Set a timer for ten minutes, and then type or write whatever comes to mind about this topic — thoughts, feelings, beliefs, questions, arguments, experiences, and so on. Don’t worry about organization, grammar, punctuation, or spelling. Type or write as fast as you can, and don’t stop until the timer goes off. When it does, congratulate yourself — you’ve overcome writer’s block! Now review what you wrote. Did you generate any new ideas that might help you with your writing assignment? If not, it’s okay — you may need to try freewriting a few more times to start seeing results. Don’t give up on this technique after only one try!
Applying Your Skills
FINDING INFORMATION AND CITING SOURCES
For many college writing assignments, you’ll need to find information in various sources and accurately cite those sources. This activity gives you practice developing these skills.
1. Identify a topic you find interesting or even controversial. For help, type “controversial essay topics” into your Web browser.
2. Locate four sources of information related to your topic. For example, sources may include books, magazine or newspaper articles, research articles from scholarly journals, and Web documents or reports.
3. Provide citations for the information sources you found. Depending on your instructor’s preference, use either MLA (Modern Language Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) style to cite each source. If you need help in citing a particular type of source, consult one of the many free online tutorials or contact your school’s library or writing center.
For example, let’s say you chose the topic “Should Performance-Enhancing Drugs Be Accepted in Sports?” You identify as useful resources the book Steroids: A New Look at Performance-Enhancing Drugs by Rob Beamish and the newspaper article “There Are No Sound Moral Arguments against Performance-Enhancing Drugs” by Chuck Klosterman. Your instructor requires APA style for citations, so you cite these sources as follows:
Beamish, R. (2011). Steroids: A new look at performance-enhancing drugs. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Klosterman, C. (2013, August 30). There are no sound moral arguments against performance-enhancing drugs. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
College Success = Career Success
PROVIDING INSTRUCTIONS EFFECTIVELY
Presentation skills can be quite valuable in the workplace, and one way you can use these skills is to train others. For example, your boss may ask you to explain to new employees how to complete a multistep task. If you break down a complicated task into small, specific steps, you’ll find it easier to explain the task to others.
To practice this skill, follow these steps.
1. Find a partner, and gather two sheets of paper and a pencil.
2. Without showing your partner what you’re doing, draw something simple on one piece of paper, such as two lines or an abstract shape.
3. Without showing your partner your drawing, give him or her instructions for how to draw your design on the other piece of paper. Be specific about where to begin (“Hold the piece of paper horizontally, and begin two-thirds of the way down the left-hand side of the page . . .”), and specify how long and how big to make each shape or line.
4. If your partner can’t understand your instructions, ask him or her to erase part of the drawing. Then give your partner alternative instructions.
5. Once your partner is finished, compare his or her drawing against your original drawing. How well do they match?
Reflect on this activity. What did you learn from this process about giving instructions and communicating effectively?
