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ASL 123 (American Sign Language III) - Starr

Objective. The objective of this assignment is to find resources about a topic related to deafness using the library's resources. You will also learn some basic tips for presenting information using PowerPoint and links to citing your sources using the MLA citation style.

Getting started. Before getting started, it's important to identify your topic and identify keywords. Select a topic that is not too broad to avoid finding too many results that are not relevant. For example, "deafness and families" is too broad - however, discussing being a deaf child with hearing parents (or vice versa) is more specific.

Once you've selected a topic, identify all of the important keywords that describe your topic. This will include alternative terms (e.g., hearing impaired) as well as terms that are broader and narrower. You will likely have to do several searches to determine which keywords yield the best results when doing a search.

Finding resources - books. Books are a great place to start because they can provide you with detailed information on a broad topic. An ideal book will have several chapters that focus on different aspects of a topic, and there may be one or two chapters that are ideally suited for your topic.

The majority of books on deafness are categorized with call numbers in the range between HV2349 through HV2990 (click here for information on finding books with call numbers). There are other books on deafness throughout the library's collection if the focus is on another subject (e.g., law, music, etc.).

To search for all books on deafness, use the library catalog to do a keyword search on your topic. You can use more than one term to refine your search and make it more specific. The topic list provided by your instructor is an excellent starting point for generating keywords. Some examples:
  • cochlear implants AND children 
  • music AND deaf? - the "?" is a wildcard that captures the words deaf and deafness (in our periodical databases, use the * symbol instead)
  • "lip reading" - quotation marks indicate that you want to search for the phrase instead of the individual words

Finding resources - articles. Articles are ideal for finding very specific information on a particular aspect of a topic or subject. When you use the library's two main periodical databases - ProQuest Research Library and EBSCOhost's Academic Search Premier - you're searching for millions of articles across thousands of periodicals. You can access these and other periodical databases from the library's databases page.

Here, you can use your search terms to greater effect by combing two or three terms to find exactly what you're looking for (this is called "Boolean" searching). For detailed information and tips on using these two databases, visit the  Using ProQuest Database and EBSCO Database pages.

Creating your presentation. Once you've found some resources, it's time to create your PowerPoint presentation. In short, use short bullet points in your presentation to guide you into a discussion with the class, and avoid using most of PowerPoint's "bells and whistles." For an excellent list, see the Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations webpage from Boise State University.

Citing your sources. It's also important to cite your sources - the standard for humanities courses is MLA. The library's citation page provides you with examples, weblinks, and to a website that helps you generate citations.