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MUW Fant Library Instruction Materials

Objectives, descriptions, and supplemental materials for library instruction sessions

Reading Scientific Articles

Reading Scientific Articles

  • Learning Objective(s):
    • Develop reading comprehension skills for peer-reviewed, scientific articles
    • Understand the structure of a scientific article and the purposes of each section
    • Define unfamiliar terms
    • Concept map a scientific article to restate the main ideas and purpose of the selected study
  • Description: This lesson will walk students through the different sections of a scientific article, how to read these different sections, and how to use the information presented in each section.
  • Use cases: This activity works for undergraduate students in the sciences and social sciences who will have to gather and synthesize empirical or peer-reviewed research articles.  
  • Related Materials:

MLA 8th edition

MLA - 8th Edition

  • Learning Objective(s):
    • Understand how MLA Style helps prevent plagiarism
    • Understand the structure and concept of "containers" in MLA Works Cited Entries
    • Recognize commonly formatted citations (e.g. book, book chapter, journal article, etc.)
    • Recognize formatting rules for in-text citations and works cited citations
    • Practice formatting citations in provided examples and in in-progress papers
  • Description: This lesson will give students an overview of commonly incorporated MLA formatting and style requirements, and it will give them a chance to "workshop" or ask questions about MLA citations that they have used (or will use) in their course papers.
  • Use casesThis assignment works best for students in the humanities (primarily English or Writing classes) that have an in-progress paper assignment that requires MLA formatting and style usage.  
  • Related Materials:

Researching for Poetry Analysis

Researching Poetry

  • Learning Objective(s):
    • Understand different strategies for writing about poetry (i.e. criticism and alternative resources)
    • Locate resources for writing about poetry
  • Description: This lesson will discuss different ways of searching for literary criticism, historical or cultural context, and biographical information about a poet or their work, and provide resources for finding these items.
  • Use cases: This assignment is for students who have to write a paper analyzing poetry and use sources to do so.  
  • Related Materials:

Finding Book Reviews

Researching with Book Reviews

  • Learning Objective(s):
    • Understand how and when to use a book review for research
    • Locate book reviews for books published within the last 20 years
    • Locate book reviews for books published in the 19th and 20th century
  • Description: This lesson will explain what kind of research makes appropriate use of book reviews as sources, and it walk through the steps of locating book reviews for contemporary and historic primary sources.
  • Use Cases: This can be used for students completing an assignment where book reviews are used in upper-level undergraduate or graduate literature or history classes.
  • Related Materials: