Course Project

Brainstorming and Searching for Sources
Last week you chose a final project topic and began the research process. This week you will narrow your focus and find some preliminary sources.

Make sure you read and incorporate your instructor’s feedback on your Milestone 1 submission. You will receive a grade and feedback by Thursday of Module 2 at the latest.

Begin by reading pages 2.11 through 2.13 in the webtext and then begin the steps below.

Step 1: Freewriting
The first step to brainstorming is to harness your brain’s energy around a topic (aka create the “storm”). Many professional writers do this by freewriting about a topic for a set amount of time. This helps exercise your writing muscle and broaden your thinking on your topic. For this exercise, set a timer for 10 minutes. During this time write down anything that comes to mind about your topic. Don’t stop until the timer goes off! You don’t need to worry about proper spelling or sentence structure, just think broadly, pose questions, wonder, consider, and write what you already know about your topic. Think about the facts and questions you posed last week and how your instructor responded to them. You can choose to do this with a pen and paper or on a computer. You don’t need to submit this step with your finished product so feel free to experiment.

For example, if my topic choice is climate change my freewrite might look something like this:

I chose climate change as my topic. I don’t know much about it but I know that when people say climate change they really mean warmer temperatures on Earth, sometimes it’s called global warming. I have heard that sea levels are rising and the ocean is getting warmer. This is causing ice caps to melt. What is causing it? The article I read last week talked about greenhouse gases and fossil fuels. Does everyone agree that climate change is happening? I don’t think so. Sometimes you hear on the news that politicians or TV personalities talk about climate change being made up, I’m not sure if that’s true. It seems like when you hear scientists talk about it they’re more certain that it’s a problem. Why does it seem like everyone talks about climate change as a problem but nothing ever actually changes? I think electric cars are a good idea but too expensive for me to buy, I wonder how they can bring them down in price so more people will switch from gas. I saw that movie that Al Gore made about global warming, but I don’t remember what it was called. Are alternative energy sources like wind farms and solar power really enough to make a big change? What are other countries doing? What would it take to end climate change entirely at this point or is that impossible?

The end result might be a mess! It might look nothing like the example above. That’s ok! The purpose of this activity is to get your thoughts out on paper so you can begin to filter and narrow them.

See the Milestone 2 TemplatePreview the document for examples of each of the steps below:

Step 2: Making a List
The next step is to use your freewrite paragraph to help narrow your area focus. The topic choices from Module 1 are too broad to cover adequately in a short research paper, so you need to find one subject or idea within that topic. Pull out the important ideas from your paragraph that could be useful directions of focus. Aim for at least 7 different ideas to pull out and list in bullets.

Step 3: Describing Your Topic and Finding Your Keywords
As you’ve been working on this you may find that certain ideas are standing out to you as more intriguing avenues for research. Now, pick one of these ideas and write one to two sentences describing your narrowed topic.

Step 4: Thinking of Synonyms
Next, underline at least 5-6 key terms and phrases in your description. Then, for each underlined word, come up with 2-3 synonyms, abbreviations, acronyms, or alternative terms to describe it. You can use a thesaurus (Links to an external site.) to help you with this. This step is crucial to finding useful sources to use in your paper because the sources you’re looking for may not appear if you search for one keyword but will appear with another.

Step 5: Searching the Library
The synonyms now give you a great list of keywords to use to search the Excelsior College Library for sources.

For this stage, we will NOT be using Google or other internet search engines to find sources. It is important to first understand how to effectively use our Excelsior College Library to find appropriate, scholarly sources. While you can find these types of sources through a Google search as well, you often have to search through and distinguish between many inappropriate sources as well. In later weeks, we’ll learn more about assessing the validity of information on the internet.

Begin by going to the Library Home page (Links to an external site.) and using the OneSearch tool. Try several combinations of your keywords and synonyms to see what types of sources come up. (Tip: view Library searching tips and tricks (Links to an external site.) and try using search tricks like AND, OR, *, or “ ” to change your results). Then, try an Advanced Search (Links to an external site.) within the OneSearch tool to narrow your results further. View the following video on conducting an Advanced Search. (Links to an external site.) In addition to changing your keywords and filters, trying limiting your results by date (look for more recent articles) or by source type (look for Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Journals). This will help you find higher-quality sources that are more likely to be useful to you in later weeks.

Find at least 6 sources that are relevant to your topic. They can be ebooks, journal articles, encyclopedia articles, news, and periodicals, etc. You may use the source you found last week if it still relates to your more narrowed topic. If not, scrap it and start fresh. The sources you find this week may not end up being the final sources you use for your paper, but they are a good way to get started on your narrower area of focus.

Try to put your sources in APA format in your final submission. You will not be graded on your strict adherence to proper APA format yet, but it is important to practice this skill as you will need to use it effectively later on in the course. Make sure to include the URL, the author (if there is one), the title of the article/book, and date.

Resources:

Milestone 2 TemplatePreview the document (Word document)
Library Homepage (Links to an external site.)(Excelsior Library)
Library searching tips and tricks (Links to an external site.) (Excelsior Library)
Advanced Search (Links to an external site.) (Excelsior Library)
Video on conducting an Advanced Search (Links to an external site.)(Excelsior Library)
Thesaurus (Links to an external site.)
Submission Instructions
Once you’ve completed the steps above, submit the following in one document to the dropbox by Sunday evening of Module 2. Use the Milestone 2 templatePreview the document to see examples of each step and assemble the finished product:

Your list of at least 7 narrowed ideas on your topic from the freewrite activity
Your 1-2 sentence description of your narrowed topic with at least 5-6 key terms and phrases underlined
At least 2-3 synonyms for each of the 5-6 key terms or phrases
Six sources on your topic from the Excelsior Library advanced search (including author, title, date, and URL)
Put all four components into the Milestone 2 Template Preview the documentand submit the finished document to the dropbox below by Sunday night of Module 1.

Evaluation
This assignment is due Sunday by 11:59 pm ET.
This assignment will be evaluated according to the IND301 Milestone 2 Rubric. Make sure to review the rubric before submitting so you know how you will be assessed.
This assignment is worth 5% of your overall course grade.
You can find the library in link below, let me know if it works:

https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.vlib.excelsior.edu/eds/results?vid=10&sid=933c5178-1b14-4914-8718-4a31bc2439e3%40pdc-v-sessmgr04&bquery=COLLEGE%2bDEBT&bdata=JmNsaTA9RlQmY2x2MD1ZJnR5cGU9MSZzZWFyY2hNb2RlPUFuZCZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZlJnNjb3BlPXNpdGU%3d