Course Description

Introductory research seminar for students currently pursuing an Honors research project. An introduction to research methods used in different disciplines and to scholarly collaboration and communication. This course focuses on formulating a research question, identifying and utilizing sources, constructing and critiquing scholarly arguments, and creating an effective final written and oral product. As students learn about scholarly research, they simultaneously identify and refine their own research topic, engage in scholarly conversations on their work, apply discipline-specific methodologies to their work, and create their own final research product and bibliography.

Welcome, IDST 150 students! 

This guide will supply you with information about finding books and articles to help you write your paper. You will explore books, databases and Internet websites that are full of information. You will also learn what a database is and how to use one.

TO GET STARTED: Click on one of the many tabs above this box:

• The Research Process: describes the cycle of doing research for a college paper (or any important question, really).
• Resources for Research: how to find books, articles, newspaper stories and other sources for your class assignments.  Included are recommended databases to search for this course.
• Is the Source Scholarly? Or Popular? Many instructors require that their students use scholarly (sometimes also called "academic") articles as sources for their research papers. For this class assignment, you may be asked to compare how two different sources, one popular and one scholarly, write about the same issue. This webpage will help you determine which. 
• Wikipedia!?! does have a valid place in academic research - but that might not be what you expect.
• Evaluating Sources: these are the most important skills to learn. Add these P.R.O.V.E.N. questions to your evaluating toolkit.
• Citations in your Papers: how to use MLA format to properly cite your sources - and why it's worthwhile to do this.

Unit: 1

Lecture hours/semester: 16-18

Homework hours/semester: 32-36

Prerequisites: None

Corequisites: None

Recommended: Eligibility for ENGL 110.

Transfer Credit: CSU and UC systems

Susan Mahoney, Professor / Honors Transfer Program Coordinator

mahoney@smccd.edu

Gloria Darafshi

darafshi@smccd.edu

Rebekah Taveau, Humanities and Social Sciences

taveaur@smccd.edu