Speech 121
The Process of Interpersonal
Communication
Instructor Kate Campbell
Fall 2011
Library Information Competency
Prepared by Ibtesam Dessouky
Library Basics
 Logging in to computers – instructions on
workstations in the library lab.
 Books – most check out for 2 weeks. You need
student ID to check out materials.
 Reference books – cannot be checked out.
 Reserve books – most are for building use for
only two hours unless the instructor allows the
material to be checked out.
 Periodicals – most print magazines & journals
can be checked out for two days. Electronic
databases and indexes contain many full-text
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Today we will cover the following
issues
 Identifying a research topic
 Formulating a thesis statement around the topic
 Exploring general information sources
 Identifying key concepts that describe information needs
 Achieving a manageable focus
 Evaluating and organizing information based upon
relevance to thesis
 Choosing the right format to retrieve the information
 Developing a search strategy
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Identifying a Research Topic
 Choosing a topic
– What are your interests?
– Use sources to get ideas. Read the newspaper. Use the
CQ Researcher online database to browse by topic
(http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/). You can
combine topics. (Music and the Vietnam War;
Professional sports and Civil Rights)
– What do you already know about your topic?
– You may also get ideas from class notes, syllabi, and
assigned readings.
 State your topic in the form of a question
– For Example: Are there differences in how men and
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women self-disclose?
Identifying a Research Topic
(cont’d)
 For your research paper you will choose a family
relationship & focus on one of the relational
concepts, listed below, to enhance the
effectiveness of your interpersonal
communication.
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Perception
Emotions
Self-Concept
Listening
Nonverbal Communication
Language
Self-Disclosure
Relationships
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Formulating a Thesis Statement
Around the Topic
 Definition - A thesis is a statement that coheres all the material
you’ve gathered into a unified piece. You can form a thesis
statement prior to gathering research, but you may need to
modify it based on what you’ve found.
 “Think the words, ‘I believe …’ just before you write your thesis
statement. This will insure that you and your ideas are in the
paper.” (Baron, p. 10)
– Example:
• “I believe that gender affects the way people interpret information.”
• “I believe that gender does not affect the way men & women interpret
information.”
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Exploring General Information
Sources
 Reference works
– useful for finding facts, data, statistics, and brief information.
Libraries usually don’t allow these to circulate. Include
encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, statistics. Specialized
encyclopedias include Encyclopedia of Human Behavior,
Encyclopedia of Psychology, and Encyclopedia of Relationships
Across the Lifespan.
 Biographies & Autobiographies
– collective or individual biographies. Collective biography could
be an encyclopedia of mathematicians or of jazz musicians.
Individual bio. is usually a monograph. An autobiography is
written by the subject, sometimes with assistance.
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Exploring General Information
Sources (contd.)
 Monograph
– “A scholarly piece of writing of essay or book length on a
specific, often limited subject” (American Heritage® Dictionary)
 Periodical
– Article in a journal, magazine, or newspaper.
Relatively short (compared to full-length books) and
often quite current
On-line information
– can include: Articles in a periodical index (full-text articles
indexed in an online periodical database, such as Academic
OneFile, are considered print … delivered online), Newspaper
articles reprinted on a newspaper’s site, Online magazines
(Salon.com), Blogs (highly personal and subjective), Personal
website, Commercial website, Educational organization’s
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Select Information Sources
It is important to understand the difference between a
"magazine" and a "scholarly journal". It can sometimes be
difficult to make the distinction but here are several clues to
help you with that process:
Journals
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
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Scholarly
Bibliographies
Abstracts
Intended for a specific
audience
Refereed
Very plain, no photos
Target audience
Long articles
Magazines
Popular (News)
No bibliographies
Advertisements
Intended for a general
audience
Non - refereed articles
Colorful and flashy
General audience
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Short articles
Select Information Sources
(cont’d)
Examples of Magazines (Popular)
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Select Information Sources
(cont’d)
 Examples of Journals (Scholarly)
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Identifying Key Concepts That
Describe Information Needs
 Is the issue a very current one? If so, what kind
of sources are you most likely to need?
 Is the issue covering a period in history? How far
back? What kind of sources might be
appropriate?
 Is the issue controversial? If so, you’ll need to
find information expressing a variety of points of
view.
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Achieving a Manageable Focus
 How long is your final project? A five minutes speech? A
250 word essay? A two page paper? A 10-12 page
research paper? This will determine …
 How many sources you should cite.
 Most college instructors expect the majority of sources to
be printed, rather than from the Internet. Remember,
however, that full-text articles indexed in an online
periodical database, such as Academic OneFile, are
considered print … delivered online.
 Scholarly journals only, or are popular magazines ok?
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Evaluating and Organizing
Information Based Upon
Relevance to Thesis
 You may need to revise your thesis based on what you
learn from the data you’ve gathered
 “An accurate thesis is important, for a general statement
indicating the direction of all the material will give your
discussion one logical direction, a necessary characteristic
of any successful paper. Careful formulation of a clear
thesis will prevent rambling. If you have trouble arriving
at a clear and concise general statement, you probably
have included irrelevant material.” (Yaggy, p. 19)
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Choosing the Right Format to
Retrieve the Information
 Online Catalog to locate books that LAHC Library owns
(http://www.lahc.edu/library)
 Electronic Databases to retrieve full-text articles from
magazines, journals and newspapers from Academic
Academic OneFile or ProQuest
 Periodicals (print journals or magazines)
 Selected Reference Works
 Searching the Internet using search engines such as
Google and Internet Public Library
 Library of Congress Subject Headings, LCSH, to trace a
subject for your topic
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Developing a Search Strategy

There are mainly three steps to follow in developing a search
strategy:
1.
Identifying the key concepts in your thesis statement.
For Example: Are there differences in how men and women
self-disclose?
2. Choosing related terms or synonyms for your key concepts.
3. Combining your terms using Boolean operators, such as and, or
and not.
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Developing a Search Strategy
(cont’d)
Using Boolean Operators to Connect Terms
 AND Narrows a search. A record must have all
the terms in the citation
 OR Broadens a search. Either term may appear
in the citation
 NOT Narrows a search by excluding articles
containing the second search term
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Bibliography
 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the
English Language. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt. 2000. Print.
 Baron, Alvin. Bud’s Easy Research Paper
Computer Manual. Lawrence, N.Y.: Lawrence
House Publishers, 1995. Print.
 Sanderlin, David. Writing the History Paper.
Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron’s Education Series, 1975.
Print.
 Yaggy, Elinor. How to Write Your Term Paper.
New York: Harper & Row, 1985. Print.
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Other Resources
 Harbor College Library Home Page
www.lahc.edu/library
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