Library and Web Research
The purpose of this activity is to apply the principles of library and web research to the
Before Class
- In PWOnline read about Library and Web Research (Why writers need to find and use information | Finding sources that already exist | Search tools in the library | Searching for printed sources | Library judge | Search tools on the WWW | Searching processes for web sources | Web judge)
- Start searching for relevant web sites and texts related to your client and your client's service.
During Class
For this situation you will be asked to pretend that your supervisor is going out of town and wants you to to do some prelimanary research about the subject you are currently working with (your client and your client's service). When your supervisor returns, s/he wants a memo explaining what you have learned about the client and the client's service.
Each person in the group needs to contribute one source; therefore each group should have at least four to five different sources. Of these sources, at least two should be from the web and two should be from a library text (this does not mean that you cannot use THOR, a web engine, to find these sources). You are encouraged to exceed the number of required sources.
Meet with your group and compile the data that you have collected. Organize your data into a memo that reports what you have learned from your research. You may want to use the following questions to guide the organization of the memo.
- What did you learn about the service in general?
- What did you learn about this service in other contexts? How does this compare to what you know about how your client offer this service? If there are any differences what factors may explain these differences?
- How will you use this information to help your client?
- What other web or library research do you plan to do and why?
- Remember to cite all of your sources.
Keep in mind that research is often an imperfect process; therefore, there may be parts of this assignment that are difficult to complete. In such a case, keep in mind the spirit of the assignment, rather than the letter of the assignment.
At the end of class, save the Library & Web Research Activity Memo (LWR) and send it to the instructor as an MS Word Attachment.