local_library

Formulate specific questions that describe the area of research you're trying to locate so that the human will be able to provide a targeted response. Choose more than one method of contact to ask very specific questions (but do not ask two different librarians to answer the same question). If you don't know how to use the Library's databases, then consult with librarians to learn how! Or start at Library Do It Yourself DIY.

1. Chat with Oregon Librarians, Answerland 24/7.
2. Email Women Studies Librarian, Jane Nichols.
3. Email Ecampus Librarian, Stefanie Buck. View her page.
4. Ask Engineering Librarian, Margaret Mellinger.
5. Ask Anthropology Librarian, Ruth Vondracek.
6. Ask Oregon Multicultural Archives Librarian, Natalia Fernandez.
7. Text 66746: Start with the word BEAVS the very first time you text us. Example: BEAVS what time does the library close?
8. In person with an OSU Reference Librarian or your local librarian any day of the week.
9. Telephone (541) 737–7293

Evaluating Sources

"Between June 2015 and August 2017, millions of Americans were exposed to Facebook ads and posts generated by Russian operatives who sought to influence voter behavior and exploit divisions in American society on hot-button issues." The Facebook ads Russians targeted at different groups By Dan Keating, Kevin Schaul and Leslie Shapiro. Nov. 1, 2017

In Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning (2013), Stanford University scholars determined that most college, high school, and middle school students lack the ability to differentiate between advertisements, opinion pieces, and news articles. This problem tends to encourage citizens to base important opinions on untrue, incomplete, and unfair articles and ads, which many call fake or alternative news.

Our ability to differentiate fact from fiction gets harder as new sources of varying quality crop up overnight and fill our news feeds with headlines meant to attract attention rather than educate. Overuse of sensational headlines, uncited 'facts', and unrelated photos bombard our senses and distract us from reading carefully.

In addition, political parties from around the world overfill news feeds with fake information to push their agenda, which can persuade large groups of voters one way or another, as we have seen with Facebook and Instagram posts by Russian government officials.

To help us navigate factual, analysis, and opinion articles, refer to Vanessa Otero's Media Bias Chart, Edition 3 (below). To place a news source in the X axis (conservative versus liberal) and the Y axis (factual, analytical, unfair), Otero uses a metric that involves three main categories: Veracity, Expression, and Fairness. For a detailed analysis of her method, read related blog posts at All Generalizations are False as well as an expert review of her work (Media Quality and Bias) by Professor Max Stearns of University of Maryland Carey School of Law.

Synthesis Writing

Sandra Jamieson of Drew University clarifies for you the three key features of Synthesis Writing (1999):

1. It accurately reports information from the sources using different phrases and sentences
2. It is organized in such a way that readers can immediately see where the information from the sources overlap.
3. It makes sense of the sources and helps the reader understand them in greater depth.

And Ed Boyden, award-winning MIT brain researcher reminds us to:

”Synthesize new ideas constantly. Never read passively. Annotate, model, think, and synthesize while you read, even when you’re reading what you conceive to be introductory stuff. That way, you will always aim towards understanding things at a resolution fine enough for you to be creative.”

Ed Boyden, How To Think, According To This Winner Of The Brain Prize, 2016

Writing Support

Ugh! Instructor's Top 12

1. A “site” is a location or place (even a web site). “Sight” refers to vision. “Cite” refers to the source.
2. To “excel” means to do well whereas “Excel” is the proper name of a computer application.
3. “Police officer” is gender neutral whereas “Policeman” is not.
4. “Chair of the Board” rather than “Chairman of the Board”
5. “Writers should sharpen their eyes” rather than “a writer should sharpen her eyes”
6. “To boldly go where we have never gone before” instead of “to boldly go where no man has gone before”
7. “Your” is possessive of “you” and “you're” is a contraction for “you are."
8. “There” is a place. “They're” is a contraction for “they are.” “Their” is possessive for “they.”
9. “Who” and “whom” refer to people. “Which” refers to animals or things. “That” can refer to either persons or things.
10. “Too” means “also”. “Two” is a number. “To” references a direction, affect, or relationship.
11. “Its” is the possessive form of “it.” “It's” is the contraction of “it is.”
12. “Then” shows sequence. “Than” compares nouns.

Avoid Writing Problems

Compare TurnItIn's Originality report with synthesis writing.

Embed Journal URLs properly

• Optimize, describe, and cite images
• Add movies
• Add an RSS News Feed to the sidebar. (4 points)
• Add the Smart Women Role Models Facebook Feed Widget. (2 points)
• Add a photo to the Banner. (3 points)
• Add color to the background (and text area if theme allows). (1 points)
• Add more Widgets to the sidebar. (2 points)

• Contact the ONID & Computer HelpDesk
• Use the Canvas Discussion Forum
• Set up Email Notifications
• Embed links in citations

• Take and Save a Screenshot
• Optimize, describe, and cite images
• Save document files in a universal format
• Listen to websites