Library

In addition to assignment-based instruction sessions, you can schedule skills-based workshops with students to help them hone their research, citation, or evaluation-based skills.

Citation

Avoiding Plagiarism - Lecture only (15 min) or with Active Learning (30 min) 
This workshop is designed to teach students about Muskingum’s plagiarism policies and how they can easily avoid the mistakes that lead to plagiarism. We will focus on when they need to cite, what counts as 'common knowledge', and how to avoid bad paraphrasing.

With added active learning, students will evaluate several short paragraphs in order to identify proper citation vs. plagiarism.

APA (20 min) 
Students will learn about the components and format of APA style research papers.  They will learn when to credit sources and how to create a works cited page. Students will also be introduced to our online APA Citation Guide for continued practice and further resources.

MLA (20 min)
Students will recieve an overview of the basics of citing in the MLA style. They’ll learn how to format the most common types of in-text citations, as well as how to create a works cited. They will also learn when it’s appropriate to cite and how to avoid plagiarism with correct citations. Students will be introduced to our online MLA Citation Guide for continued practice and further resources

Chicago/Turabian (20 min) 
Students will learn about the components and format of Chicago/Turabian style research papers. They will learn about how to create a footnote and when to use ibid, as well as when to credit sources and how to create a works cited page. Students will also be introduced to our online Chicago/Turbabian Citation Guide for continued practice and further resources.

Zotero (20 min)
Zotero is an open-source program that works with your browser to store records and with your word processor to format them.

But Zotero is more than a citation machine – it helps scholars organize their sources, take notes, and keep their information straight. This workshop is perfect for more advanced students who may be tackling sizable research projects soon in their academic career.

Finding Sources

Muskie Scholar - Lecture only (15 min) or with Active Learning (30 min) 
We'll show students how to use MuskieScholar - a one-stop search box that searches almost all our library resources, including databases, journals, and e-books. It's great for first-year researchers and has a ton of power behind it. Skills learned in MuskieScholar translate well to other library databases.

With added active learning, students will get hands-on experience searching in MuskieScholar.

Google Like a Pro (25 min)
Students rely on Google to start their research, but they often don't know how to make the most of it. There are thousands of solid, authoritative sources available online today. Students will learn how to tell which are credible and which are not, and how to separate the good stuff from the bad with some better Googling tricks.

Finding a Source from a Citation - Lecture only (10 min) or with Active Learning (20 min)
Students struggle to understand the parts of a citation and often cannot find a cited source to use in their own research. We'll teach students how to identify the type of citation, how to break it apart into pieces, and how to find it for their own use. 

With added active learning, students will work hands-on with a list of citations in order to find the source.

Other Skills

Detecting CRAAP (30 min) 
Students often approach research by plugging their topic into their favorite search engine and wading through millions of results. In this workshop, we teach students how to separate the good information from the not so good by applying the CRAAP (Currency, Relevancy, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose) Test. Students will examine a variety of sources by asking important questions like, "What makes someone an expert?" and "How can I tell if an author is biased?" 

Reading a Scholarly Article - with Active Learning (35 min) 
Students often struggle to read assigned articles in a timely fashion. They may need help understanding the various sections of an article and how to synthesize the information in them. This workshop focuses on efficient reading of scholarly articles.

With added active learning, they will dig into some articles to practice their newly-learned skills

Building an Annotated Bibliography - Lecture only (15 min) or with Active Learning (40 min) 
We take the fear and confusion out of the annotated bibliography. In this workshop, we teach students the purpose of the annotated bibliography and then break it down into pieces. Students will learn how to format an APA and MLA citation and how to write an annotation.

Developing Research Questions - Lecture only (20 min) or with Active Learning (35 min) 
Moving from a general topic idea to usable, researchable research questions can be one of the most difficult steps students face in the research process. We'll talk about what research questions are, how to develop them, and how to use them to formulate a research plan. 

With added active learning, students will be able to identify good questions from bad and learn how to fix bad questions. We will also learn how to take research questions and turn them into thesis statements.