A Sample Assignment
Springfield College will require you to use research and evaluation skills in many different types of assignments. Below is a sample assignment with a research component.
Drug use by professional athletes is often in the news, and is a very controversial topic. You are to take the role the coach of a college athletic team and are preparing for the beginning of a new season. What you would like to do is prepare a handout about drug use in athletics that you can give to your team as well as use as an informational sheet that can be given to parents. You would like to include three types of information on this handout:
- Reliable medical information describing what drugs athletes are using, what they are used for, and what some of the dangers in their use are;
- Some articles about recent events related to drug use that have been reported in popular magazines;
- References to medical research published in scholarly journals about athletes and drug use.
To prepare this handout, you will need to:
- Evaluate some web sites that purport to have information about drug use and athletics (you will be filling out a web evaluation worksheet to help in the evaluation of the sites);
- Evaluate several journal and magazine articles from Babson Library's online databases about this topic;
- Determine which articles and websites you want to use in your pamphlet.
You will be working in groups of two to four people, so you will have the opportunity to share the work of evaluating different websites and articles.
After your evaluations are completed, there will be time to discuss:
- Your web and article evaluations;
- Which articles and websites you chose, and why.
Part One: Web Evaluation
Today we'll be focusing on the web. The following sites were found through a Google search for athletes and drug use. Take a look at at least three or four of them:
- Psyched: Drugs & Sports: Drug Types
- Bulking-Cutting.com
- National Center for Drug-Free Sport
- The Steroid Bible
- World Anti-Doping Agency
- Steroids and Teens
- Drugs in Sport
- Drug Story
- Anabolic Steroids (ESPN)
- Fighting Drugs in Sports
- Anabolic Steroid Abuse
Get into a few of these and select at least three to fill out web evaluation worksheets that you use use to describe and discuss the websites later in this workshop.
Then select one or two websites from this list that you think would be worthwhile to use to get information about athletes and drug use for your handout. Be prepared to discuss why you selected the site.* * * * * * * * * ABOUT WEB EVALUATION: There is a growing amount of information being made available on the Internet. Because of the vast amount of information being produced -- and because there are few if any restrictions about who can put information on the Web and what kind of information can be made available on the Web -- it is important that everyone develop critical thinking skills to be able to evaluate information found on the Internet. The library has created a basic handout for evaluating websites. The APA (like other professional organizations) are very concerned that people working in its field are well educated to be able to identify and evaluate appropriate and accurate information from a variety of sources - including the Web. The APA has guidelines for web evaluation that it has included in its Pocket Guide to APA Style.
* * * * * * * * *ABOUT DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARTICLES: Articles can come from a number of types of sources: academic journals, popular magazines, encyclopedias or newspapers, to name a few. Different types of articles have different characteristics. When you conduct research at the college level, it is important to be able to distinguish between types of articles and pick the most appropriate ones for the work you are doing.
Scholarly journal articles are usually intended to be read by scholars, researchers, and students in a given field. They are written by experts--often university faculty or researchers--and tend to use language that may be hard for the average person to understand. Scholarly journal articles are reviewed by experts before they are published. Claims and facts presented in the article are backed up, either by original research (which should be described in full) or with citations to sources of information. Scholarly articles contain bibliographies and are usually formatted according to a major citation style such as APA, MLA, or Chicago.
Popular magazine articles tend to have more general audiences, can be understood by most people, and are often written by reporters rather than specialists. They do not usually include bibliographies. Often, they are printed on glossy paper and include many colorful photographs and illustrations. Sources of data are often lacking.
To read more about the differences between scholarly magazines and popular articles, read the library's handout: Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazines: How to Tell the Difference.
Ask the Library!
The reference librarians at Babson Library are happy to work with you to help design assignments to build literacy skills in your classes. They are also available to visit your classes to help engage your students in effective literature research. Faculty are also invited to schedule the Davis Literacy Center for classes to help facilitate hands-on, active literacy learning. There are four ways to contact the library:
- In person: Stop by the Information Desk anytime the library is open (hours).
- Via instant messenger: Our screen name is babsonlibrarian (AOL IM or Yahoo! Messenger) or babsonlibrarian@hotmail.com (MSN Messenger) (learn more)
- By email: Fill out the Ask the Library! form, and someone will get back to you within 24 hours.
- By phone: Call the Information desk at x3315 (on-campus); (413) 748-3315 (local); or (800) 730-5279 (toll-free).
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