The Research Process
Skills Development Workshop #1 -- Focusing Research Questions and Methodology
Youtube Video about Developing Research Questions
Including Primary Research/Data Collection in your methodology? Here is a guide about it from Purdue University:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/559/01/
Here is their guide about research, in general:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/8/
Skills Development Workshop #2 -- Finding the Best Sources
Skills Development Workshop #3 -- Reflection
Resources for this workshop are on the reflection page of the website.
Skills Development Workshop #4 -- Visiting a University Library
We will be virtually visiting the University of Toronto Scarborough Library on December 13 and 14, 2022. Students will be divided into two groups.
Students must complete the pre-assignment (at left) in preparation for their virtual trip. It should take about 1 hour to complete.
Skills Development Workshop #5 -- Academic Writing
Before writing your EE, please watch this video on Academic Writing Conventions. While you don't have to follow every one of these perfectly, it gives you a general feel for the tone of academic writing. Academic writing is very different in tone from a news article, a personal essay, or a government report. For your EE, your essay should be in an academic style, and your reflection (RPPF) should be informal/personal in tone.
Workshop Task
For two of the academic/scholarly articles that you brought today, answer the following questions:
How many headings/subheadings are used?
How is the article organized?
What types of primary data does the article use?
What types of secondary data does the article use?
Find one example of how primary data is used as evidence of an argument of the article's author(s).
Find one example of how secondary data is used as evidence of an argument of the article's author(s).
Find one example of how the author draws arguments together to form a conclusion.
Are there any tables or graphic organizers that were used to help present information?
What % of the article is comprised of the author(s)' ideas?
What % of the article is comprised of evidence from the author's primary research (experiment, survey, interview, etc.)
What % of the article is comprised of evidence that comes from secondary sources?
How much of the article is descriptive vs analytical?
Almost every EE has a literature review section. For some, it is much of the EE (especially those that are supposed to be based on secondary sources), for others, a literature review section occurs in the introduction. The most important part of this video is the last minute -- where he explains that the literature review is just the beginning ...
This video is for writing a scientific journal article, so it may not be useful for those doing a non-science EE.