This Journal is a record of your answers to LILO questions. You can print or email this Journal (watch the video!) by scrolling to the bottom of this page.

Research Process — Manage Your Time

The Assignment Calculator will help you plan the work you need to do to complete the assignment on time.

  1.1 Enter a working title for your research topic or assignment (e.g., "The History of Hawaiian Tattoos," "The Coqui Frog Problem in Puna," "Argumentative paper," "Reaction paper," etc.)  

  1.2 Enter the date your assignment was given to you:   

  1.3 Enter the date your assignment is due:  

  1.4 According to the Assignment Calculator, I should select and focus my topic by...  

  1.5 I should begin my search for books by...  

  1.6 I should outline or describe the overall structure of my paper by...  

  1.7 I should begin writing my first draft by...  

Your Assignment

  2.1 Identify the verbs ("action words") in your assignment and list them here:  

  2.2 What approach do those verbs in your assignment suggest?  

  2.3 What sections are required in your paper (introduction, methodology, discussion, references, etc.)? ?  

  2.4 Briefly describe any special instructions for this assignment (page minimum, formatting, fonts, books and article sources only, etc).   

  2.5 Your instructor is one member of your audience. List others below who will read your paper or listen to your presentation, such as classmates, family members, community members, etc.  

  2.6 Is your audience familiar with your topic? Do you suspect that one or more audience members might have strong opinions or bias about your topic? Explain.

Your Assignment - Types of Research Materials

  2.7 Are books useful resources for your topic? Why or why not?  

  2.8 Are scholarly journal articles useful resources for your topic? Why or why not?  

  2.9 Are magazine articles useful resources for your topic? Why or why not?   

  2.10 Are Web sites useful resources for your topic? Why or why not?  

Strategy — Select Your Topic

  3.1 Enter your broad topic here:  

  3.2 Take your broad topic, break it down, and identify 2 to 3 narrow subtopics using strategies outlined above, and enter them here.  

Strategy — Develop a plan

  3.3 What is your thesis statement or research question? What questions do you want to ask about it? What do you want to tell others about your topic?   

  3.4 Extract 3 to 4 searchable terms from your statement or question like the example above illustrates. List them here:  

  3.5 List any appropriate synonyms and closely related terms for each of your searchable terms here:  

  3.6 List any alternative spellings, abbreviations, or multiple word endings that apply to your synonyms and/or search terms here.  

  3.7 Are there search terms or phrases you might use a truncation symbol with? List them here:   

  3.8 Are there any phrases related to your topic that you might need to use quotations marks with? List them here:  

Strategy — Build a Keyword Search

  3.9 For practice, select two terms from each concept above and enter them into the Keyword Search Builder. Press "Create Search," and paste the search string here:   

  3.10 Select words and phrases you have compiled on your own topic and create two searches. Paste the search strings below:

Search String 1:  

Search String 2:

Search — Find Books

  4.1 Do an "Advanced Search" in Voyager for books on your topic using your concepts, synonyms, and keywords. Copy and paste one book citation (the author, title, publication information, library locations and call numbers) in each box.

Book 1:

Book 2:


Book 3:

Search — Find Call Numbers

  4.2 The example call number in the graphic at the top of the page begins with the letters HQ. Use the Library of Congress Classification System link above to determine what broad subjectHrepresents and what narrower subject HQ represents. List both here:   

You will use the first book citation you pasted on the previous page to answer the following three questions :

  4.3 Using the call number for this citation and Library of Congress Classification link, find the subject area that corresponds to the one- or two-letter call number designation and enter it here:  
  

  4.4 Select a library location for your book (the name of the campus library where the book is available is displayed after Location: e.g., Kauai CC, Honolulu CC, UH-Hilo) — enter the location here.  

  4.5 Your book may be shelved in a particular collection or building at the library you have chosen, e.g., Reference, Hawaiian, READ, Hamilton, etc. This information follows the name of the campus library, e.g., "Location: UH Hilo Hawaiian." Enter the collection name here:   

Search — Find Articles

  4.6 Browse the online periodical indexes available at your library using the links above. Which indexes will be best for searching for articles on your topic, and why?
  

  4.7 How would you describe what a periodical index is to a friend, and how it differs from a library book catalog?

  4.8 Find at least one article related to your topic using Academic Search Premier. Copy and paste the citation here:

  4.9 Is the full text of the article available online? If so, is it available in HTML or PDF format? Is there an abstract?

Optional:  Use this space to paste an additional article citation from Academic Search Premier:

Optional:  Use this space to paste an additional article citation from Academic Search Premier:

Search — Find Web Sites

  4.10 Follow the link to one of the search engine links above and search for your topic. List the title and URL ("Uniform Resource Locator," or Web address) of one promising Web page you find.

  4.11 What is your favorite search engine? Compare it with another search engine you have used (be sure to identify this other search engine by name in your answer). Explain what your preferred engine does that the competitor engine does not do. 

  4.12 Look at the "advanced search" display of your favorite search engine. What does it allow you to do that the ordinary default search display does not?  

Evaluating Resources — Evaluate Books

  5.1 Enter the book title and author:   

  5.2 Look at your book. What kind of information have you found about the author that indicates it is a good resource to use? Explain your answer.   

  5.3 Look at your book. Does the information you now know about the purpose and scope of the book indicate that it will be a good resource for you? Explain your answer.  

  5.4 If your book has a table of contents, enter the chapter titles most relevant to your topic.   

  5.5 If your book has an index, enter one or more words from the index to pages that are relevant for your topic.  

  5.6 If there is a bibliography, enter one or more citations to other sources of information relevant to your topic.  

  5.7 Identify the publisher of this book and enter it here. Explain why you believe this book to be a good resource based on the publisher. 

  5.8 Is the currency of the book's publication date important for your research topic? Explain your answer.

  5.9 You have now evaluated this book using several criteria. List three of the criteria you believe to be the most important ones for evaluating a book, and give a brief justification of each.

Evaluating Resources — Evaluate Articles

  5.10 Describe in detail and in your own words the differences between scholarly journal articles and popular magazine articles.  

  5.11 Why do you think instructors require students to use scholarly journal articles instead of popular magazine articles?  

Evaluating Resources — Evaluate Web Sites

Your Web site(s):

  5.12 Select the Web site displayed above that you entered earlier into LILO, or insert another URL here to to evaluate. Enter the title of the Web site (usually displayed in the top most frame of your browser):  

  5.13 Based on what you have learned about the authority of a Web site, is the site you have chosen appropriate for your assignment? Explain.  

  5.14 Based on what you know about the purpose of this Web site, is it appropriate to use for your assignment? Explain your answer.  

  5.15 Based on what you know about the content of this Web site, is it appropriate to use for your assignment? Explain your answer.  

  5.16 Based on what you know about the date and/or currency of the information found on the Web site, is it appropriate to use for your assignment? Why or why not?  

  5.17 Based on the above, your review of site content, and a presence or absence of bias, is this Web site appropriate to use for your assignment? Why or why not?  

 5.18 You have learned to evaluate Web sites using several criteria. Of these criteria, which is the most difficult to evaluate, and why? If you have any lingering questions on whether the site is reputable or not, what are they?  

6. Synthesis — Understanding Plagiarism

  6.1 Look at the examples of plagiarism above. Which one do you think is the most common, and why?

  6.2 Are the consequences for plagiarism fair? Why or why not?  

6. Synthesis — Integrating Your Research

  6.3 In your own words, describe the differences between quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing.  

  6.4 Explain how you should decide whether to quote, summarize, or paraphrase a passage from a resource.  

6. Synthesis — Citing Sources

  6.5 Have you ever had to cite a source for any kind of school or business work? (Yes/No?)  

  6.6 If you have previously used some type of citation style, which one did you use: MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian or another citation style not listed?   

  6.7 Paste the book citation here:  

  6.8 Paste the article citation here:  

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