ENG151 - Information Formats, Evaluation, and Responsible Use

Learning Outcomes

After completion of the ENG 151 information literacy unit, students will be able to:

• Given a claim, be able to verify if it is true or not.
• Given a source, determine if it is reliable and trustworthy.
• Find the original source of a story, study, image, etc.
• Find a better source on a topic and explain why it is better.
• Determine if a source is popular or scholarly.

What We're Covering Today

1. Information formats and source types
2. Strategies for evaluating information
3. Introduction to using library databases
4. Practice evaluating information

The Research Process

1. Information need: What is your assignment asking you to find? 
2. Pre-research: Choose a topic, learn more about it, narrow it down, find keywords.
3. Research question: What is your assignment asking you to create?
4. Search strategy: Where will you look for information?
5. Search: Start with the main ideas of your topic or research question.
6. Evaluate every source you find - for credibility and usefulness.
7. Cite: You have found credible sources and answered your research question!