Here are the PowerPoint slides for my presentation to your class. Click in the lower right corner to expand the slides to full screen.
The assignment
Quoting from the assignment description distributed by Dr. Davidson:
Students must write a research (8-10 page) paper that offers an answer to one of the course’s core questions. (Note: the paper is NOT a “how to” guide or a list of “pros and cons.”) Most students will benefit from focusing their paper on a specific endurance sport (e.g., ultra running).
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See the assignment description for more details, including components of the paper, expectations for layout and formatting, and deadlines.
Background information
Learn the basics of a topic by reading background information (overviews and summaries). Wikipedia is useful for this. You can also use encyclopedias in the Reference section of Simpson Library. I recommend the Encyclopedia of Sports Science:
Databases
You can use Quest to search all subjects, or use individual databases to search specific subjects (such as biology or sociology or economics). I particularly recommend this sports database:
Books
Find books using Quest. The majority of our books are e-books, but we also have more than 300,000 books in print. When you find a print book in Quest, use the call number to find the book on the shelf. Here's an explanation of how our call numbers work.
Or, browse the shelves:
I recommend that you follow these steps to complete your research assignment:
Step 1: Reread the assignment description
Step 2: Find a topic
Step 3: Find background information (overviews) about your topic
Step 4: Find sources
Step 5: Read!
Step 6: Write your paper and cite your sources
Advice and recommendations for FSEMs in general, and for research into sports, biology, or sociology.
The Citing Resources guide gives you examples of perfectly-formatted citations. Zotero is a free app that keeps track of the sources you've found, and generates citations without any typing.
Use Quest to search the library's physical collection and the contents of most of the library's electronic databases.