CMPT 105WLibrary Research Workshop

Applied Sciences Librarian,SFU Surrey

Shane Plante <shane@sfu.ca>

The plan

• Finding your topic

• Researching your topic

• Evaluating your sources

• Getting help

• Questions (at any time)

finding your topic

Finding your topic

You will be writing two different papers about the same applied science topic.

1) An informative paper2) A persuasive paper

The topic must have• “a significant social, environmental, or

ethical dimension” • “an area of controversy associated with it”

Would any of these work for both an informative and a persuasive paper on an applied science topic?

1) 3D TVs 2) School uniforms3) Depictions of gender in Mad Max: Fury Road4) Electronic employee monitoring

Don’t forget that it must have – “a significant social, environmental, or ethical

dimension” – “an area of controversy associated with it”

Finding your topic

A few places to find a topic:• Background sources – Encyclopedias / handbooks– Textbooks – Books

• News sources

Finding your topic

researching your topic

CMPT 105W: Research guide

Researching your topic

Sample research question: Should employers be allowed to

electronically monitor employees?

Researching your topic

Two keys to finding what you want:• Good words to use for your search• Good places to search

Researching your topic

Two keys to finding what you want:• Good words to use for your search• Good places to search

Q: What are some search words and related concepts for this sample topic?

Electronic employee monitoring

Researching your topic

Two keys to finding what you want:• Good words to use for your search• Good places to search

You want to find authoritative sources to support your work. 1) Based on the results you can see in

screenshots, rank the places to search on your handout.

2) Why did you rank them in this order?

Researching your topic

Where did the search results come from?a) Google Scholarb) Googlec) Fast Searchd) Academic Search Premier

Researching your topic

journal articles

books summarize recent research

textbooks, reference books, encyclopedias

Finding background information

{ always access through SFU Library }

Library Search

SFU Library’s homepage search options:

Fast Search

Catalogue

Evaluating your sources

You’ll want to find authoritative sources on your topic.

Are either of the articles on your sheet scholarly articles? a) How can you tell?b) How can you use one scholarly article

to find additional relevant sources?

Evaluating your sourcesPopular Scholarly

Author No affiliation provided Affiliated with an academic / research institution

Abstract No YesLength Short LongImages For aesthetic appeal Research findings displayed as

graphs, charts, etc. Language Easy to understand Elevated, specializedCitations None at all, or very few Yes, manyReview Editor Peer-reviewed

• What information don’t you need to cite?

• What information do you need to cite?

Citing sources

Image credits

Gears by Mark Shorter

Stethoscope by Olivier Guin

Thinking by Timothy Dilich

Curious by Stephen Borengasser

Glasses by Cor Tiemens

Surveillance by Luis Prado

Map by Michelle Ann

Fishing Hook by Laurent Canivet

Russian Doll by Dmitriy Lagunov

Network by Mister Pixel

Signpost by Juan Pablo Bravo

Juggle by AnsteyDesign

All icons used were published with CC-BY licenses or are in the public domain. They all come from The Noun Project: thenounproject.com

In order of appearance:

Also on CMPT 105W research guide

• Citing your sources– Links to IEEE and APA guides

• Presentation resources– Link to SFU Library’s “Business

Presentations” page, which includes a variety of excellent resources

• Avoiding plagiarism tutorial – Link to SFU Library’s “Understanding

and Avoiding Plagiarism” online tutorial

The library provides many ways to get help:

- In-person at the reference desk- Telephone- Email- IM- Text message - Student Learning Commons

http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/ask-us/

Getting help