Research

Research

You will be asked to do some minimal research in this course; however, you will engage in more in-depth research in your other, upper-level ESP courses. Knowing how to conduct research is a critical skill, espcially in this day and age when anyone can post anything on a website or publish in "journals".

When I went to College (and I'm sure many of you can remember the same), if we wanted information about a topic, we had to trudge to a physical library and work through the tedious process of finding the right type of information and then physically finding the source in the library! While you don't have to physically go to a library anymore, you do have the monumental task of sorting through information to find meaningful and reliable sources! Not only do you have more information at your fingertips than ever before, the amount of information available grows by the day. Therefore, finding the most appropriate information for your paper or project can be a challenge. You are encouraged to think critically about each piece of information you read and make an informed decision regarding whether or not to use the source in question. You cannot and should not only use Google to find everything you need. That's where the Libraries and Librarians come in. You're paying for access to the Penn State Libraries, so use it!!