SCS 200 Week 3 Short Response Guidelines

Overview: The short response activities in the webtext throughout this course are designed to show your understanding of key concepts as you engage with course content.

Prompt: During the third week of the course, you will respond to several questions in the webtext as you complete each assigned learning block. At the end of Week 3, you will review your answers to these questions and ensure that you have responded to each question. It is important that you answer each question. Otherwise, the words no response will appear in brackets when you submit the assignment. The questions and their original locations in the webtext are listed in the table below in case you want to refer back to the reading as you edit, but you can edit your responses to all the questions directly in Theme: Performing the Research Investigation, learning block 3-4 (page 2), before exporting to Word for submission to your instructor in the learning environment.

Question 1 In the textbox provided, brainstorm a list of keywords related to your topic. Theme: Performing the Research Investigation, learning block 3-1 (page 3)

Question 2 Now type those keywords into an Internet search engine, such as Google. Spend some time looking through the results. In the textbox below, jot down the titles and hyperlinks of a few of the most interesting articles and websites that come up in your search. Write down at least one article and the corresponding hyperlink for each keyword or group of keywords.

Question 3 What are you finding? What new information have you learned about this issue? What new questions or thoughts do you have now that you have done some preliminary research?

Theme: Performing the Research Investigation, learning block 3-1 (page 4)

Question 4 Can you narrow your focus at all? If so, what do you wish to focus on? If you have a few options, what are they? (You don’t necessarily need to narrow your focus. Mark found this helpful to do because his topic is very broad.)

Question 5 Based on the broad search, refine the list of keywords that you created on the previous page. List here any keywords or keyword combinations that returned results that are relevant to your social science issue. Then, note which keywords or combinations you will no longer use, as they returned off-topic or overly broad results.

Question 6 What professional organizations (other than social science organizations) might have relevant information about your issue? For example, someone researching war might utilize information provided by the United States Department of Defense. Find 1–2 organizations, and note them here.

Theme: Performing the Research Investigation, learning block 3-2 (page 2)

Question 7 Now select one of the digital libraries or organizations mentioned in this learning block (Shapiro Library, Google Scholar, etc.), and plug your keywords into that site. What credible sources come up in your search? Repeat this step with at least one more digital library/organization. In the textbox, type the titles of 6–8 of the most relevant results along with the corresponding hyperlinks so you can locate these resources later. Note which digital library/organization you used to find each study.

Theme: Performing the Research Investigation, learning block 3-2 (page 4)

Question 8 Look for information on the websites of professional organizations that are related to your social science issue. Collect any information, links, articles, reports, or other resources that are relevant to your issue; capture this additional information in the textbox. Again, be sure to include links to your resources so you can easily locate them later.

Question 9 Begin by noting the title of the resource and including a link to it. Is this source current? Note the publication date or a date indicating when the content was last updated.

Theme: Performing the Research Investigation, learning block 3-3 (page 3)

Question 10 Is this source relevant? Note the portion of the text that you believe clearly relates to your research question. Consider whether this source provides an overview of the issue you are interested in, or whether it makes some specific important point.

Question 11 Is this source accurate? Note whether the source has been published in a peer-reviewed journal or credible organization, and the organization’s name. Note whether the source includes a list of references and citations. Give your opinion on the source’s presentation—is it clear, organized, professional, and free of errors?

Question 12 Is this source authoritative? Note the author’s credentials. If no author is given, note whether the publishing organization is credible, and the organization’s name again.

Question 13 Are there any red flags that make you concerned that this source may not be scholarly? For example, are there any clearly biased passages? Are the references all very old? Are there many spelling and grammatical errors? Note any and all concerns you may have.