Types of Publications
Scholarly vs. Popular vs. Trade Publications
Learn the differences between the three most common types of articles you'll find while searching in library databases. This short video was created by librarians at East Carolina University's Joyner Library.
Understanding Plagiarism
This detailed tutorial, created by librarians at University of North Carolina--Charlotte, address how to recognize and avoid plagiarism. Interactive features allow students to test their understanding of key concepts. Though the tutorial refers to some features specific to the UNC-Charlotte Library website, the basic information about plagiarism is valuable to students at any institution.
Research Presentation
For a presentation of any length is important to clearly state your goal.
- What do you want your presentation to say?
- What should your audience know after your presentation?
As you compile the research for your presentation you should answer these two questions. Get rid of any information that does not answer these questions.
Just like any great paper a great presentation has a great structure. There are many different presentation structures you can follow guidelinescan, or create your own. For example:
This is one storytelling frame
- Ask your audience a question that frames the speech.
- Tell your audience how you’ll try and answer that question.
- Start with a personal or investigatory story.
- Drill down into the details of how the story applies to your presentation.
- Offer some takeaways or next-actions for this.
- Tell another personal or informational story.
- Repeat the drill down points, the takeaways, etc.
- Thread questions in earlier than the end.
- Finish with a solid set of steps people can use to take action based on your presentation.
Variations on the theme:
- Start with a question about a famous figure.
- Explain that your audience is there to help you figure out if that figure embodies the subject matter you’re covering.
- Ask them to consider the figure at every step in the presentation.
- And present…
From a blog post from Chris Brogan entitled Make Better Presentations-The Anatomy of a Good Speech
Research Questions
Developing a Research Question
This interactive audio/visual tutorial from Canada's Wilfrid Laurier University discusses how developing a good research question can help refine the focus of an academic paper and lead to the development of a strong thesis. Interactive elements are built in to the tutorial to help assess comprehension of key concepts. The site also includes a link to a downloadable "Research Question Worksheet." Recommended for ENGL 101 and 102 students.
Transcript Text (PDF)
Literature Reviews
This tutorial--created by North Carolina State University Libraries and shared via a Creative Commons license--provides a detailed overview of what is meant by "the Literature," different varieties of literature reviews, and the steps involved in completing one. Though the title of the video refers to graduate students, the content is also valuable to undergraduates working on literature reviews.