CSI Library: English 151: Test Your Knowledge (Assessments)

ENG 151 Worksheet

ENG151 Worksheet
In 2016, the Library instruction team partnered with the WAC (Writing Across the Curriculum) fellows and the English Department's Writing Center to develop this worksheet that accompanies Library instruction for ENG 151 classes. Pre-pandemic, teaching librarians provided the first page to students before the in-person library class, and during class provided the following three pages to students to finish during the session. When students fill out the questions on the worksheet, it provides structure & guidance in the research process, plus a perfect place to take notes. The worksheet is for the student, not the librarian.

Pick a topic and develop a good research question

The first step in writing a research paper is choosing a good topic. Your topic will have to be something that falls within the guidelines provided by your instructor, and should also be something that you find interesting and would like to learn more about. However, a good research paper involves more than choosing an interesting topic and reporting information on it. A research paper should attempt to critically analyze a complex problem, and that means you need to develop a focused research question, which is essential to the research process. By defining exactly what you are trying to find out, your research question influences most of the rest of the steps taken to conduct your research. Follow the guides below to help you choose a topic and develop a good research question:

Choosing a Topic
A worksheet designed to help students brainstorm a topic for a research paper.
Crafting a Research Question
This is a worksheet designed to help students move from their chosen topic to a more focused research question.

Online Tutorials for Library Research

Each tutorial contains a short quiz. You will have the option to email your results to yourself, and forward those results to your professor.

Introducing... the Library as a Physical Space

Virtual Tour of Library and Services (learn what is here and how you can use the library as a student)

Getting Started with Your Research:

Using Onesearch (one place to search for nearly all library content)
Academic Search Complete (a multidisciplinary database of scholarly and popular literature)

Introduction to Citation Styles (choose the appropriate one for your class):

Introduction to Citation Styles and Avoiding Plagiarism (MLA)

Information Literacy Concepts

Misinformation and Disinformation: Thinking Critically about Information Sources (Learn to critically evaluate online news sources and identify fake news)
A History of Plagiarism with a Future of Academic Honesty (This is a longer tutorial that replicates a 30 minute lecture in a new format.)