Writing in the Disciplines
Frederic Murray
Assistant Professor
MLIS, University of British Columbia
BA, Political Science, University of Iowa
Instructional Services Librarian
Al Harris Library
frederic.murray@swosu.edu
Writing Across the Disciplines
• Read & discuss current theories related to writing in
the disciplines work.
• Consider the rhetorical appropriateness of different
genres to convey your ideas.
• Create a research project that applies what you’ve
learned in this course to a rhetorical situation of
your choice.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Course Component
• Research portfolio (including a
proposal (50), annotated bibliography
(100), completed text (100) with
abstract (25), and final writer’s memo
(25))
Information Age
st
21
Century Search
• Overreliance on Algorithms - Issue
• Conceptual understanding of how
information is organized – Solution
• Discerning Scholarly Resources –
Solution
Wisdom
Data
Information
• Continuum (DIKW)
Knowledge
Terms of Understanding
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Data comes about through research, creation, gathering, and discovery.
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Information has context. Data is turned into information by organizing it so
that we can easily draw conclusions. Data is also turned into information by
"presenting" it, such as making it visual or auditory.
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Knowledge has the complexity of experience, which come about by seeing it
from different perspectives. This is why training and education is difficult - one
cannot count on one person's knowledge transferring to another. Knowledge is
built from scratch by the learner through experience. Information is static, but
knowledge is dynamic as it lives within us.
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Wisdom is the ultimate level of understanding. As with knowledge, wisdom
operates within us. We can share our experiences that create the building
blocks for wisdom, however, it need to be communicated with even more
understanding of the personal contexts of our audience than with knowledge
sharing.
Cleveland H. "Information as Resource", The Futurist, December 1982 p. 34-39
“Often, the distinctions between data,
information, knowledge, and wisdom
continuum are not very discrete, thus
the distinctions between each term
often seem more like shades of gray,
rather than black and white.”
Shedroff, N. (2001). "An overview of understanding" in Information Anxiety 2 by Richard Saul Wurman. Indianapolis: Que.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in
knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information?
- T.S. Eliot's The Rock (1934)
Interdisciplinary Research
• Cross-disciplinary analysis – examines an issue typically
germane to one discipline through the lens of another
discipline (i.e., how physicists explore music, sociological
perspectives on the purpose of religion).
• Multi-disciplinary analysis – examines an issue from multiple
perspectives, without making a concerted effort to systemically
integrate disciplinary perspectives.
• Inter-disciplinary analysis – examines an issue from multiple
perspectives, leading to a systematic effort to integrate the
alternative perspectives into a unified or coherent framework
of analysis.
Cross-disciplinary analysis
• Professor of Neurology
• Brain’s Elasticity
• Studied Production of Art
-brain trauma
Multi-disciplinary analysis
German Culture WW II
German Culture WW II
Inter-disciplinary analysis
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Sociobiology
Animal behavior(including
humans) is the product of
heredity, environmental stimuli,
and past experiences
Human mind is shaped more
by genetics than culture
Writing Across the Disciplines
• Read & discuss current theories related to writing in
the disciplines work.
• Consider the rhetorical appropriateness of different
genres to convey your ideas.
• Create a research project that applies what you’ve
learned in this course to a rhetorical situation of
your choice.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Tools of Scholarship
Content
• Books
• Articles
• Journals
• Citations
• WWW
Tools
• Catalogs
• Databases
• Lists/Indexes
• Search Engines
Library Home Page
21st Century
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Video Podcasts
Audio Podcast
Wikis
Blog (Weblog) and Video Blog Post
Forum or Discussion Board Posting
E-mail
Computer Software/Downloaded
Software
Nonperiodical Web Document or
Report
Online Lecture Notes and
Presentation Slides
Qualitative Data and Online
Interviews
Graphic Data (e.g. Interactive Maps
and Other Graphic Representations
of Data)
Data Sets
Bibliographies
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Annotated Bibliographies
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
Dissertation/Thesis from a
Database
Book Reviews
Chapter/Section of a Web
Document or Online Book Chapter
Kindle Books
Electronic Books
Newspaper Article
Abstract
Article from a Database
Article From an Online Periodical
with no DOI Assigned
Article From an Online Periodical
with DOI Assigned
Online Scholarly Journal Article:
Citing DOIs
Article From an Online Periodical
Libraries
• Digital Collections
– Articles begat Journals begat Databases
begat Discovery Search
• Material Collections
– Dewey/Shelves
Worldcat
• Found in the Database A-Z List
• Access multiple libraries
• Interlibrary Loan
Discovery
• EBSCO Interface
– Use Advanced
• Source Types*
– Reviews
– Use Worldcat to locate books/videos
• Subjects* use example of teenage
alcohol consumption
Approaches
• Discovery
• Subject Specific Database
• Read the Results/Citation
Choose Appropriate Databases
• Subject Specific:
– CINAHL = Nursing
– BIOSIS = Zoology
• Search a range of databases
• Think about the range of sources:
books, journal articles, statistics,
websites, conference reports…
JSTOR
• Includes archives of over one thousand
leading academic journals across the
humanities, social sciences, and
sciences.
• Search by discipline: i.e. Sociology
Citations
• We think of citation patterns as the
flow of information," says Carl
Bergstrom, a biologist at the University
of Washington. "That's what a citation
is — the trace that an idea flowed
from one place to another."
Snowballing
• Building on the works of others
• A scholarly article will always have
References/Bibliography
• A bibliography is always ripe for the
picking…
References
Using the Open Web
Google: Improve Your Searches
Site Specific Command
What it does: searches only specific domains
What to type: elvish language site:edu
elvish language site:gov
Google Scholar
• Predatory Journals
• Unless you’re familiar with Research
Methodology ( Cohort/Systematic
Reviews i.e.)
• Cost
RefWorks
Specific Resources
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Worldcat – Books/Videos
Ebrary – Digital Books
JSTOR – Academic Journals/Subject
Project Muse –Academic Journals
Discovery – Search Interface
• PLOS –Public Library of Science (Open Web
Source)
• Ted Talks – Video ( Open Web Source)
Simply Put
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Search
Refine
Discovery
Recovery
Questions?
• Contact me:
• Frederic Murray
• 774-7113
• frederic.murray@swosu.edu
outline
• Strategies/Sources/Organization
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Explain the layout of the Lib Page
All the stuff we have/collections
Focus on using Discovery to access
Identifying formats/sources
Using bibliographies
Refworks
Thanks!