Part 1: Completed by Group (120 points)
Introduction

This portion of the final project was completed on a Google doc or another editable platform that allowed group members to modify this document regularly and work on the document concurrently. Submit the final draft of the group's project as a Word document here. One submission per group.

Project Details

Centered at the top of the page, the following information in the order listed:

• *Title - This will be the final research question that was approved by your instructor. Capitalize (the first letter of) all important
• Date
• Course Name, College
• Name of authors - Group members’ names listed in alpha order by last name.
  
  

1. The Research Question: Identify the inspiration and trajectory of your research question. In this portion, state the original question and explain how, when, and why this question changed over time. That is, what did you add or change about this research question? At what stage of the research project did it change, and how often? What reason(s) motivated this change or these changes? Explain how this chapter Links to an external site. is related to how your research question changed over time.

Here are a few other questions to consider. These are meant to inspire your analysis of your research question, so don’t feel you have to answer each of them. How did you arrive at this research question? What were your considerations? Why is this research question compelling to you? What did you hope to learn or get out of investigating this research question? Is there a personal connection to this research question? How did you go from topic to research question? Based on your preliminary searching and your popular sources, provide a brief overview of your research topic. Discuss the main concepts from your research question. Cite relevant passages from readings, videos, and lectures to connect your analyses to course content. (1-2 pages) (10 points)

Reminder: Your question must be a researchable inquiry. If you say the question out loud and you can answer it with a fact, a statistic, or a book report, it is NOT a researchable question. Review your notes and course resources for writing an appropriate research question. (As stated above, you may modify your research question as you find and learn about your sources, but the general idea of your research topic should remain the same. Review the lessons on the differences between a regular question and a research question.) All group members will use the same agreed/approved research question as a springboard to complete all components.

2. The Evolving Keyword Matrix: Keep a log of the keywords you used, including the synonyms, Boolean operators (AND, OR, or NOT, in your statement), Phrase searching (use quotation marks around two or more words), Truncation (asterisk), or Wildcard (question mark). Consider how you arrived at related terms Links to an external site.. This can be in the form of a chart and/or a list. Every time you find a successful keyword, related term, or search strategy, add it here.

Also, in this section, describe the process you used to find sources for your research question. How did you apply the concepts you learned in LIB 100? Which main subject disciplines did your research question fall under? For example, how did you go about choosing the library databases, and which ones were the most successful for your research question? Why? Which main concepts (synonyms, related terms, narrower terms) were the most successful search terms for your research. Did this change depend on the type of resource (e.g.. OneSearch Discovery tool, library databases, etc.)? Did you modify your research question as a result? How did you find the most relevant and useful results when searching the library discovery tool for books or eBooks? Given your topic, was a broader or narrower search more effective? Explain. Cite relevant passages from readings, videos, and lectures to connect your analyses to course content. (2 pages) (10 points)

3.  ACRL Framework: As you explore your research question, consider how this process is informed by each of the six frames we learned about this semester. Connect what you are learning while conducting research on your topic to these six frames by engaging the frames and explaining how you are learning about each through the very process of conducting research:

• • Authority Is Constructed and Contextual Links to an external site.
  • Information Creation as a Process Links to an external site.
  • Information Has Value Links to an external site.
  • Research as Inquiry Links to an external site.
  • Scholarship as Conversation Links to an external site.
  • Searching as Strategic Exploration Links to an external site.

The idea is for you to exercise metacognition throughout this process -- to think about your thinking about research and relate it to the guiding principles we have been studying throughout this semester. For example, you just found a great source and did lateral reading to determine the author’s expertise: how is that related to the frames above? Which ones? How? You hit a paywall? How is this related to value – or strategic exploration? Cite relevant passages from the ACRL Framework. (3-5 pages) (25 points)

4. Annotated Bibliography: You will conduct research in a variety of ways. Each student in the group will contribute 5 sources that directly respond to your group’s research question. So, there should be a total of 20 annotated sources in this section. All sources must meet the criteria of credibility, authority, reliability, appropriateness, relevance, and accuracy. The first three sources listed in a-c below must be from the GCC Library’s collections:

1. 1. 1 book or book chapter
   2. 1 scholarly journal article
   3. 1 popular article (such as from a magazine, newspaper, or trade periodical
   4. 2 sources of your choice (reference sources, open web sites, another book/chapter in a book, scholarly, popular, news article, media source, etc.), which MUST meet all the criteria for being reliable, credible, relevant, and authoritative. Other than open web, all other sources must be from the GCC

You will also be discussing these sources in your groups. In some rare cases, this kind of distribution (a-d) is not feasible. Talk to me about your project if you feel this is the case, but I’d like each of you to explore as many types of sources as possible. (4-6 pages) (40 points)
NOTE: Avoid opinion pieces, editorials, and letters to the editor as these will usually contain more bias than fact- and evidence-based sources. I do not want sources to tell you how to think; I want you to evaluate the facts and evidence presented in a source, and draw your own conclusions.

Do not use the following types of sources (or anything like the following; if you are not sure, ask me):

CITATIONS AND ANNOTATIONS -- Each source must contain the following:

• • Citations in proper MLA Style format (9^th edition) and must be alphabetized and double-spaced by the first element (usually the author’s last name, but not )

• • Under each citation will be the evaluative annotation that analyzes the source according to the criteria from the sheet, “How to Write an Annotation for a ” This sheet is in Canvas. Do not use the worksheet from the GCC Library website, since it has different criteria. Based on your evaluation, this paragraph should also include an explanation of how the specific source responds to some aspect, not necessarily all aspects, of your research question.

5. Discussion (on Evaluating Search Results) – Use your annotated bibliographies to help you discuss your selection of sources. What did you learn about evaluating sources and what trends did you see in the sources you found? (1 page) (10 points)

Here are some questions you may want to consider as you approach this section: How did you evaluate your sources? What surprising or critical information did you discover as you evaluated your sources? What did you discover about the accuracy, reliability, and credibility of your sources once you began to compare one type of source with another; for example, how did your book/chapter contribute to your understanding of the primary issues of your research question compared to what your popular source was able to provide? In other words, how did a specific source type meet the individual needs of your research question?

6. Outcome – If you were to write a research paper on this question today, do you feel you would be prepared? What would your thesis be? What would you add or change about this question? (1 page) (10 points)

Here are some questions for you to consider as you approach this portion: What conclusions were you able to draw from the sources you found in response to your research question? What did you learn about your problem/issue based on your research? If your research question attempted to solve a problem, what are one or two of the most promising solutions you would recommend based on the research you found? If more work needs to be done in this area, what might that work look like?

7. Abstract and Outline: Using what you learned about the question you researched, compose a very brief outline of how you would organize an essay if you were to write one today. This can be a very rough outline that would include a thesis and a very brief explanation of what each paragraph would include. There shouldn’t be any complete sentences here. This is just a bird’s eye view of your essay if you had to write one. (1 page)

• • Introduction
    1. Thesis: _______________
  • Topic of paragraph 1: __________
    1. Main idea: ____________
    2. Sources used: __________
  • And so on……

 Finally, compose a half-page abstract of the essay you would write, following the guidelines in the reading, “How to Write an Abstract.” (1/2 page) (15 points, outline and abstract))