Use of Information Sources
ILS 244W Unit 6
Fall 2009
October 5-12
NOTE: Please print a copy of this page and keep it nearby for ready reference.
UNIT 6 READING ASSIGNMENT
- LECTURE: Read the lecture notes below (then take a quiz on the material).
- READINGS IN TEXT: Read chapter 6 (pp 123-152) in List-Handley (then take a quiz on the material)
UNIT 6 WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
DAILY THEMES - [Diction]
Day 1: Compose a paragraph of ten or so sentences using words of mainly Anglo-Saxon origin. Make this paragraph as graceful and effective as you can. RogertŐs Thesaurus will provide many synonyms from which to choose. Before you use any unfamiliar words from the thesaurus, check the meaning in a dictionary.
Day 2: Write another version of the Day 1 assignment using mainly words of Latin, French, or other non-Germanic origin. Make this version as graceful and effective as you can. Rogert's Thesaurus will provide many synonyms from which to choose. Before you use any unfamiliar words from the thesaurus, check the meaning in a dictionary.
Day 3: Using a thesaurus or The Oxford English Dictionary (online or print copy), select a word for which English has numerous synonyms (e.g. politician, mixture, sense, or patriotic) and discuss the shades of meaning which differentiate these synonyms.
Day 4: Assume the persona of a fictional author of the past and write a narrative in which you use several of the following words according to an obsolete or archaic sense that you find in the Oxford English Dictionary:
Clue, conscience/conscious, depression, feminine, gentle, immorality, kind, liberal, luxury, paradise, sense/sensible, silly, simple, villain/villainy, wit.
Day 5: Rewrite a theme from a previous week by making changes in diction that improve the clarity and effectiveness of the piece.
UNIT 6 RESOURCE GUIDE ASSIGNMENT
This week you are to identify and examine indexes in your area of study.
Give an overview of what kind of information is available in these resources and list specific sources and their call numbers (if in print) or URL (if on the Web); where appropriate, give notes on coverage of and how to use each resource.
UNIT 6 LECTURE
Indexes are a tool for bibliographic control of sources such as contributions to periodicals, periodicals themselves, newspapers, book chapters, and conference proceedings.
Most items on an established subject will appear in the periodicals, books, and proceedings expressly devoted to it. But not always. Valuable articles on a subject can turn up in very unexpected places. Indexes help you turn up those unexpected places.
It is important to know the subject indexes for your field (such as Current Technology Index) as well as citation indexes (such as the Social Science Citation Index), and abstracts (such as Psychological Abstracts).
If your college or university does not have access to Citation Indexes, it is generally worth your time and effort, especially if you are writing a major paper such as an Honors Thesis, to find a college or university that does and will let you use them (and show you how to use the various volumes).
A few online indexes (be sure to explore these):
UNIT 6 QUIZ
Test what you learned from this week's reading.
This is a short 5 question quiz covering the assigned reading for this unit. Take a maximum of 10 minutes. Some questions require you to apply what is learned from the readings. Other questions ask you to recall specific material. After you have taken the quiz, go back and check you answers in the text.
On this class site, every effort has been made to acknowledge the work of others. Any omission is unintentional. If anyone finds an oversight, please contact me at brownm6@southernct.edu immediately so that any error can be corrected.
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