HED 1102

Communication Skills 1
 Lesson 7-9
• Introduction. Library Resources; Information literacy
•Sources of information (books, journals, internet
etc). • Evaluation of information sources; •
Introduction to citing and referencing, • Plagiarism
and copyright • APA referencing style.
• Academic Writing  Expectations of college writing
(referencing/ summaries/ write sentences with in-
text referencing). Academic essay-writing; Writing
coherently; paragraphing; Referencing-APA,
• Reading techniques.
 Expected Learning Outcomes
• By the end of the lessons, the learner should be able
to;
 Identify and use different sources of information.
 Assess the relevance of literature, based on a topic or
question.
 Write sentences with in-text referencing.
 Write a coherent academic essay.
 Write references in the APA style correctly.
 Describe the various reading strategies and techniques.
 definition \
Introduction: Library Resources on
Source: definition
Information Source: Definition. A
source is something or someone that
provides you with information.
Sources of information can be:
people, books, databases, files, films,
tapes, libraries.
 Types of information resources
•Print
 Books
 Journals
 Magazines
 Maps
 Documents
 Letters
 Photographs
 Records
 Types of information resources
•Electronic resources
 Electronic journals
 Electronic books
 Databases
 Reference materials
 Digital collections - IR
 Electronic newspapers
 Blogs
 Social Sites
 Research collections
 Cont.d
• During your studies, you require
information to do your assignments and
research...
• You will need to develop skills in finding,
evaluating and using information effectively
and ethically.
• The goal of the library is, therefore, to
ensure that your information needs are met.
 Electronic Resources
•An online resource is any information
that can only be accessed using a
computer.
–May be electronic version of print

–May be electronic version

 Benefits of Online resources
Current
Easy and efficient retrieval process
Sharing of resources (can be accessed by
many at the same time)
Easy to access related items
Easy to browse
Enhanced security (no mutilation, no
losses..)
 Electronic search tools

 Help you sift through the huge range of

information available.

 Using keywords to browse or perform simple or

advanced searches.

 Search tools function slightly differently.

 Examples of Search Tools
 Google Custom search
•It is a customized search engine that can be integrated to institutions
websites

 Google scholar
•Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the
full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing
formats and disciplines

 Advanced google search

•Advanced search is a built-in feature of Google which allows a user to
specify additional requirements for a search such as phrases, time,
region, pages… etc.
Google Scholar
 Evaluation of resources
• Information available on the Internet is not
regulated for quality or accuracy.

• Anyone can publish anything they wish on

the Web.
 Questions for evaluating a source

Each time you find a source, ask yourself the following questions;
• Will the information support the point I want to make?
• Is the information current? When the site was last updated? Ask yourself if the
date is appropriate for your topic.
• Is the site reliable and highly regarded? For instance, is it from a well- respected
newspaper, magazine, or journal? Is the English grammatically correct?
• Is the author an expert on the subject? (Many sites provide biographical
information about the author).
• Does the writer present a balanced view, or does he or she clearly favour one
viewpoint over another? Ask yourself if the writer has a political or financial
interest in the issue.
• Is there advertising on the site? Consider how advertising might influence the site’s
content.
• Do different writers supply the same information on various sites? Information is
more likely to be reliable if multiple sources cite the same facts.
 Scholarly vs. Popular information
resources
 Authority:
• Can you easily identify the author: credentials and experience.

 Accuracy:
•Is the information reliable and error free.

 Currency:
–is the information up-to-date.

 Purpose:
–What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, persuade, report, research or present
opinion?

 Coverage:
–Country, region, comprehensive or specialised.

 Intended:
–What is the intended audience, general or specialised.
 Citing sources

• Each time you borrow someone’s words, ideas, or images,

you must cite or credit the source to avoid plagiarising.
There are two places you need to cite sources in your
research essays – in the essay and at the end of it. Use in-
text citations (also known as parenthetical citations) as you
incorporate quotations, paraphrases, or summaries. Then,
cite the sources in an alphabetised list at the end of your
essay. The title of this source list depends on the
documentation style you choose. For example, the Modern
Language Association (MLA) refers to the lists as Works
Cited and the American Psychological Association (APA)
refers to it as References.
 Avoiding Plagiarism

• Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s words or ideas without giving that
person credit. Whether it is intentional or not, plagiarism is a very serious
offence and can result in expulsion from a course or termination from work.
Always acknowledge the source when you borrow material. The following
actions are examples of plagiarism;
• Copying and pasting text from an Internet source without using quotation
marks to properly set off the author’s words.
• Using ideas from another source without citing the source.
• Making slight modifications to an author’s sentences, but presenting the words
as your own.
• Using another student’s work and presenting it as your own.
• Buying another’s work and presenting it as your own.
• The Internet has made it easier to plagiarise, but it is also easy for instructors to
catch cheaters. To avoid plagiarism, always cite the source when you borrow
words or ideas (Gaetz & Phadke, 2012).
 Integrating borrowed information

• You may be asked to support your essay ideas using

quotations, paraphrases, or summaries. These useful
strategies strengthen your term paper and make it more
forceful and convincing. A quotation permits you to use
another person’s exact language. A paraphrase lets you use
your own words to present someone else’s essential
information or ideas. Finally, a summary allows you to use
borrowed information because you present only the main
points of one or several works in your own words.
• All of these strategies are valid ways to incorporate research
into your writing, as long as you give credit to the author or
speaker (Gaetz &Phadke, 2012).
 Paraphrasing

• Definition: The same thought but in different

words.
• When you paraphrase or summarise, you
restate someone’s ideas using your own
words. The main difference between a
paraphrase and a summary is the length.
While a paraphrase can be the same length as
the original selection, a summary is shorter.
 How to paraphrase

To paraphrase, do the following:

• Highlight the main ideas in the original text.
• Restate the main ideas using your own words. You can keep specialised
words, common words and names of people or places. However, find
synonyms for other words, and use your own sentence structure.
• Use a dictionary or thesaurus, if necessary, to find synonyms.
• Maintain the original author’s ideas and intent.
• Do not include your own opinions.
• After you finish writing, proofread your text.
• Acknowledge the author and title of the original text.
• Remember that a paraphrase is roughly the same length as the original
text.
 Paraphrasing
Purpose
• To make clear the meaning of a passage.
• To show understanding of a passage by using your own words and sentence
structures.
• To avoid using direct quotations.
Some tips
• Keep it simple. • You can start by using the author’s name in the sentence:
Wylde (2010) states that… or by using different sentence starters: The issue
focuses on…
A good paraphrase
• conveys the same ideas as the original,
• uses mostly different words with a different sentence structure,
• is relevant to your work
• is linked to the rest of the text, and • is referenced.
 Summarising
In most fields, you will be asked to summarise. For instance, your superiors may ask you
to compress detailed information into its basic components so that managers can
identify what action to take. In written summaries, readers should be able to understand
the essential message. The complete document would contain details and examples, but
readers would not require the original to make sense of the central ideas.
When you summarise, you condense a message into its basic elements. Do the
following;
• Read the original text carefully because you will need a complete picture before you
begin to write.
• Ask yourself who, what, when, where, why and how questions to help you identify
the central ideas of the text, and then write your summary.
• Reread your summary. Ensure that you have expressed the essential message in your
own words.
• Keep your summary to a maximum of 30 per cent of the original length.
• Cite the source.
 ORGANIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE
(Library of Congress Classification Scheme)
• A – GENERAL WORKS
• B - PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION
• C – AUXILIARY SCIENCE OF HISTORY
• D – WORLD HISTORY AND HISTORY OF EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, etc.
• E – HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS
• G – GEOGRAPHY
• H – SOCIAL SCIENCES
• J – POLITICAL SCIENCE
• K – LAW
• L – EDUCATION
• P – LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
• Q - SCIENCE
• R – MEDICINE
• S – AGRICULTURE
• T – TECHNOLOGY
• Z – BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Sub-Divisions (Subclass
H)
• HA - Statistics
• HD - Industries
• HF - Commerce
• HG - Finance
• HJ - Pubic Finance
 The American Psychological Association (APA) style of documentation

APA: INCLUDING IN-TEXT CITATIONS

• Here are two basic options for inserting parenthetical citations in an APA-
style research essay:
1. Enclose the author(s), the publication year, and the page number(s)in
parentheses.
• Include the last name(s) of the source’s author(s). For more than one author,
separate the authors’ names using & (the ampersand sign). Follow with the
publication year and then the page number or the page range where the
material appears, using p. or pp. Separate the names, date, and page
references with commas, and place the final period after closing parenthesis.
• Sometimes rioters lose control and “take out their anger and frustration on
any individual” (Locher, 2002, p.92).
• A dozen men are responsible for the development of the movie camera
(Giannetti & Eyman, 2006).
 In-text citations
2. Introduce the source directly in the text
• When you include a short quotation within a sentence, place
the publication year in parentheses immediately after you
mention the author’s name. Present the quotation, and the
write the page number in parentheses immediately after it.
• Sociologist David Locher (2002) explains, “Violent mobs often
take out their anger and frustration on any individual” (p.
92).
• As Giannetti & Eyman (2006) explained, a dozen men are
responsible for the development of the movie camera. (if
paraphrased no need to indicate page number)
 APA: Making a reference list

i. Write “References” at the top of the page and

centre it. Do not italicize it, or bold it, underline it
or put quotation marks around it.
ii. List each source alphabetically, using the last
names of the authors.
iii. Indent the second line and all subsequent lines
of each reference one-half inch from the left
margin.
iv. Double-space the list.
 Writing the Author and Date using APA Style

• Author. On the References page, write the

complete last name and use the first and
middle initials (if provided). Do not write
complete first names.
• Date of Publication. Put the date of
publication in parentheses immediately after
the name. If you do not have the author’s
name, then put the date immediately after the
title. If no date is available, write (n.d.).
Writing the Title and Place Using APA Style

• Title. Capitalise the first word of the title, the first word of
the subtitle, and any proper nouns or adjectives in
Reference lists. Do not add quotation marks or any other
special marks around the titles of short works. Italicise titles
of longer works such as books, newspapers, or magazines.
• Place of Publication. Mention the name of the city and the
postal abbreviation of the state or province. Here is an
example of a complete entry for a Reference list in APA style.
Example:
Brainard, S. (2006). A design manual. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
 Citing Books
Carefully review the punctuation of the following example.
• Last name, Initial(s). (date). Title of the book. City, State of Publication:
Publisher.
• One Author: Reverse the name of the author. Put the complete last
name and the first initial.
Krakauer, J. (1999). Into thin air. New York, NY: Random House.
• Two or more authors: Reverse the name of each author.
Ciccarelli, S.K., & Meyer, G.E. (2006).Psychology. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Book with an editor instead of an author: Put the editor’s name
followed by (Ed.)
Koppleman, S. (Ed.). (1984). Old maids: Short stories by nineteenth
century US women writers. Boston, MA: Pandora Press.
 More citations
• Two or more books by the same author:Include the author’s name
in all references. Arrange the works by year of publication, putting
the earliest work first.
Angelou, M. (1969). I know why the caged bird sings. New York, NY:
Random
House.
Angelou, M. (2006). Mother: A cradle to hold me. New York, NY:
Random
House.
• A work in an anthology
Munroe, A. (2003). Boys and girls. In R.S. Gwynn & W. Campbell (Eds.),
Literature (pp.313-326). Toronto, ON: Pearson Longman.
 Citing periodicals

Last name, Initial(s).(Year, Month and day).Title of article.Title of the Magazine or

Newspaper, Volume number, Pages.
• Article in a Magazine:When citing newspapers or magazines, write as much of
the following information as is available.
Shreeve, J. (2005, March). Beyond the brain.National Geographic, 207, 2-31.
• Article in a Newspaper
Dugger, C.W. (2006, December 1). Clinton helps broker deal for medicine to
treat AIDS. New York Times, p. 5.
• Article in a Journal
Last name, Initial(s). (Year, Month). Title of article. Title of Journal. Volume (Issue),
Pages.

• Seligman, M. (1998).The American way of blame.APA Monitor, 29(7), 97.

 Citing electronic sources
If the source was published on the Internet, include as much of the following
information as you can find. Keep in mind that some sites do not contain complete
source information.
Last name, Initial(s). (date of the most recent update). Title of article.Title of Site or
Online Publication. Retrieved from http://site_address.html.
Article on a Personal Website
Krystek, L. (2006). Crop circles from outer space? Museum of unnatural
mystery. Retrieved from http://www.unmuseum.org

Article in an Online Journal

If the article includes a DOI (digital object identifier), include it instead of the URL. A DOI
is a special identification number that will lead you directly to the document on the
Internet. If you cannot find the DOI, then go to crossref.org and do a DOI search.
Naremore, J. (2008). Films of the year, 2007.Film Quarterly, 61(4), 48-61.
Doi:10.1525/fg.2008.61.4.48