ENG 111: College Composition I (Gonzales-Loudoun)

This research guide will connect you to information and resources for your ENG 111 research assignment. For additional assignment information, please refer to your Canvas course or contact your professor.

If you need research assistance or library help, please use the 24/7 Chat Service or make an appointment with a Loudoun Campus Librarian. 

This assignment asks you to demonstrate your understanding of how to write an academic-style essay in which you respond to and incorporate ideas from a text. Reading, understanding, and being able to relate to the ideas in a text are all part of the process we use to turn information on a page into personal knowledge. Writing in college often involves making some kind of response to what other people have written.

There are three elements for this assignment:

1. Evaluative Annotated Bibliography

2. Brief Report

3. a Process and Knowledge Reflection.

Conducting academic research is all about finding and communicating trustworthy information. How you use that information depends on several factors including your purpose, your audience, and your writing context. In school, you use research--largely gathered by finding, reading, and selecting specific information from sources. Knowing how to find, evaluate, and incorporate information and ideas from other people's writing into your own writing and thinking is the basis for scholarship and professional work. More than this, it helps you create writing worth reading.

The Opening Scenario for this assignment includes identifying the paths available to new high school graduates. What information do these students need evaluate the best options decisions they need to make on their path to a successful career and life?

1. Identify your information needs and the sources available

• Define information needs
• Identify the different sources related to those information needs

2. Access information efficiently

• Search for the needed information
• Monitor the literature

4. Evaluate critically the information found

• Analyze the relevance of results
• Determine any gaps and re-search if necessary
• Assess the reliability of your information by developing a critical mind  

5. Communicate your research (effectively)

• Organize the information collected
• Compare prior knowledge with information collected
• Synthesize results and incorporate the material into your structured essay 
• Support arguments with quotations and a bibliography using the appropriate citation format

Goal 1. Identify at least 5-10 key concepts that interest you about your topic, and form your research question.

Goal 2. Find at least two sources in class today using article databases. Save them so that you can find them later. It's OK if you don't end up using them in your final paper!

Goal 3: Use the citation tools to cite your sources properly.