Learning Research Skills

Overview

Class Central Tips

Write multi-paragraph academic essays and deliver a collaborative academic presentation. Learn how to express your viewpoint and accurately support it with credible sources. Engage in each step of the academic writing process including the selection and evaluation of credible sources, paraphrasing and summarizing academic texts, synthesizing multiple sources in support of your viewpoint, and creating a reference page.

Syllabus

Evaluating Sources in Academic Contexts: Medical Technology
-Learn the importance of evaluating sources by identifying credible sources and selecting information to integrate in your writing. Explore the topic of technology and how recent developments in technology have changed the field of medicine through module videos, texts, and activities. Analyze the benefits and challenges of innovations in medicine in the form of a multi-paragraph essay. Learn how to develop a specific research question as you begin brainstorming for your independent project.

Citing Sources: American Academic Culture
-Learn how to correctly cite sources and create a references page to accurately support your writing and ideas. Through module texts and activities, gain insight into American academic culture including expectations and norms for how teachers and students behave and interact. In a multiple paragraph essay, analyze how cultural norms influence classroom expectations and behaviors. Develop your independent project by researching and selecting credible sources that support your topic and ideas.

Paraphrasing: Natural Resources
-Learn how to effectively paraphrase academic texts to support your own ideas and writing. Acquire several techniques for writing a good paraphrase including using synonyms and rearranging clauses. Through module videos, texts, and activities, investigate the topic of natural resources and some of the benefits which nature provides, as well as ways in which humans exploit these benefits. Using sources from Module 2, paraphrase information to be integrated into your final independent project.

Synthesizing: Ecotourism
-Learn how to synthesize multiple sources to support your ideas and writing. Through module texts and activities, think more critically about the topic of Ecotourism and explore the impacts, both positive and negative it can have on communities and their natural resources. In a multi-paragraph essay, analyze the impact of ecotourism on national parks.

Summarizing: New Urbanism
-Use your academic writing, advanced grammar, and critical thinking skills to effectively summarize academic texts to support your own writing and ideas. Through module videos, texts, and activities, expand your knowledge of sustainability and the environment, especially in relation to cities and the land around them. Research and analyze how urbanization affects the environment and present your findings in the form of an academic summary.