Unit 1. Information search

Warm-up activity

Discuss in pairs

1. What is information? Define the word.

2. What is a source of information? Give examples.

3. What types of information sources do you know? What are the main differences between them?

4. What information source can be considered the most powerful nowadays?

5. What search engines do you know? Which ones do you use? Why?

6. How do you retrieve data in the Internet?

7. What journals in you professional area do you know?

8. What databases do you use to search for the papers on your research interest?

9. Do you know any tricks how to formulate inquiry in search engines?

10. Read the saying below. Do you agree with this idea? Do you think that this statement is true if we speak about academic writing?

Being able to search for useful information that is relevant to your studies is one of the key skills that will improve your marks, as well as the overall quality of your study experience.

Active vocabulary

Learn the active vocabulary of the lesson

1	academic setting	университетская среда
2	academic writing	академическая письменная речь
3	acceptable source	подходящий источник
4	the next word (an adjacent word)	соседнее слово
5	boolean operation	логическая операция
6	conclusion	заключение
7	data	данные
8	database search	поиск в базе данных
9	evaluation	оценка, анализ
10	evidence	доказательство
11	field of inquiry	поле запроса
12	headword	заглавное слово
13	index term	индексационный термин
14	information access	доступ к информации
15	information retrieval	выборка информации
16	information search	поиск информации
17	keyword	ключевое слово
18	parentheses	круглые скобки
19	phase searching	фазовый поиск
20	placeholder	буквенный знак
21	primary source	первоисточник
22	primary feature	первичная особенность
23	to refer to author	ссылаться на автора
24	renewable	возобновляемый
25	repository	хранилище
26	search engine	информационно-поисковая система
27	search logic	логика поиска
28	secondary citation	вторичное цитирование
29	source of information	источник информации
30	truncation	сокращение, сжатие
31	wildcard	Символ

Vocabulary task 1

Match the phrases with their translation. There are two extra words.

1.special features	a.адекватная оценка
2.access time	b.неопровержимое доказательство
3.primary importance	c.вторичное цитирование
4.web search engine	d.прийти к заключению
5.adequate evaluation	e.специальное хранилище
6.data retrieval	f.поиск данных
7.special repository	g.отличительные черты
8.come to a conclusion	h.электронная поисковая система
9.identify acceptable academic sources	i.обмен информацией
10.absolute evidence	j.находить подходящие академические источники
	k.логика поиска
	l.время доступа

Vocabulary task 2

Match the word combinations from vocabulary list with their definitions. There are two extra word combinations.

1) academic year	a) give facts that help to prove something
2) data	b)attempt to find information
3) provide evidence	c) process of getting back information
4) information retrieval	d) something that you decide is true after thinking about it carefully
5) conclusion	e) fact or information
6) truncation	f) place where large quantities of things are stored
7) repository	g) time during year when there is teaching at universities
8) information search	h) making something shorter
9) acceptable source	i) period of 365 days
10) field of inquiry	j) news about someone
	k) question intended to get information about someone or something
	l) accepted officially as being suitable in particular situation

Reading

Task 1

Find the suitable heading for each paragraph.   There is one extra topic.

1. Primary features of academic sources

2. The category of sources

3. The types of information sources

4. Historical documents

5. Distinction between the information sources

6. The identification of academic sources

Information search

( 1)The sources of information you can document in university assignments are typically those from an authority. In an academic setting, an authority is usually someone who has been the author of published material. This material may come in the form of books, journal articles, published reports.

(2)This kind of information is useful in that it provides evidence, which may be in the form of – theoretical ideas, critical evaluations, research findings, and scholarly opinions - to back up the points you are making. Sometimes, these sources can be grouped into two categories: primary and secondary sources.

(3)Primary sources relate to publicly available data, like historical documents, raw data from an experiment, or demographic records. Secondary sources draw on these primary sources of data, but have been produced for public consumption in the form of a journal article or a chapter in an edited book. You are more likely to use secondary sources in your assignments. Secondary sources differ from secondary citations, which occur when you use a reference that was cited in another source and not the original. Secondary citations are dealt with in a later section.

Academic sources of information, or evidence, differ from……

• Your own opinions.

• Conclusions or outcomes of discussions on the issue with friends or relatives.

• A celebrity’s opinion.

• Articles in popular magazines.

• Opinion columns in newspapers.

(4) You can certainly draw on these materials for ideas to be developed in your assignment, but do not use them as sources of evidence. Having identified acceptable academic sources, consider how to integrate these sources into your writing.

(5) One of the primary features of academic writing is using the literature to support your ideas. This requires you to read widely in order to seek out the different sides of a debate within a particular field of inquiry. In a sense, university assignments can be considered as vehicles for exploring the literature and finding out points of difference, agreement, and variability amongst different authors. What this means is that you need to demonstrate evidence of your literature exploration by including these authors in your writing and mentioning their points of view. This technique of referring to authors in your writing is often termed citing, documenting, or in-text referencing.

Task 2

Answer the questions in groups of three.

1. Who is the authority?

2. What are the different forms of evidence?

3. What is the translation of the phrase «raw data»?

4. What is the difference between primary sources and secondary sources?

5. What is the difference between secondary sources and secondary citations?

6. What sort of technique is in-teхt referencing?

7. What is the synonym for the word «academic» in the text?

Task 3

Discuss in groups of four.

1. Who is the authority for you?

2. Do you read any opinion column?

3. What is «academic writing» in terms of your university career?

4. What university assignments you had during your Bachelor studies?

5. What assignments were the most difficult for you to complete?

Task 4.

Fill in the gaps with the words in the table. There is one extra word.

online, available, an essay title, library catalogue, to check, to search, reference, specific, produced

University and college libraries usually have ______catalogues.

These allow students_______ for the materials they want in various ways.

If you know the title and author’s name, it is easy _____ if the book is _____, but if you are making a search for material on a _____ topic, you may have to vary the search terms.

For instance, if you have been given _____: “Is there a practical limit on the height of tall buildings?”

I llustrate your answer with ______ to some recent skyscrapers.’ you might try

• skyscraper design

• skyscraper construction

• design of tall building

• construction of tall buildings

If you use a very _____ phrase, you will probably only find a few titles. ‘Skyscraper construction’, for example, only produced three items in one……, but a more general term such as ‘skyscrapers’ found 57.

Task 5

Match the parts of the sentences.

	Beginning of sentence		End of the sentence
1	You need to be familiar with	a	produced on a regular basis, containing recent research
2	Most library websites have a separate portal or gateway	b	saving the need to visit the library to find a book.
3	Their advantage is that they can be accessed by computer	c	the main journals in your subject area
4	They are usually available in	d	for searching electronic resources.
5	E-journals and other electronic resources such as subject databases	e	are becoming increasingly important.
6	Journals are specialized academic publications	f	in paper or electronic formats (e-journals).

Classroom video 1.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaRW7YPLMUU

Task 1

Watch the video and mark the sentences as TRUE or FALSE

1. Some information might be retrievable in an electronic format, other literature can  exclusively be accessed in a physical form at a library.

2. The searching results may be disappointing and have to be carefully evaluated.

3. Scholarly search engines allow searching for academic articles.

4. Web search engines such as Google can not be used during research process.

5. University assignments can be considered as vehicles for exploring the literature.

6. Do not spend a great amount of time or space restating your topic.

7. It may be necessary for you to clarify any key terms or concepts in the topic of the paper. 

8. Usually a single sentence is all you need to restate your topic.

9. Truncation is a placeholder (wildcard) used in OPAC or database search.

10. Marketability, marketable, marketer are the examples of left-sided truncation.

11. Modelling, modeling, moderating are the examples of multiple character truncation.

12. The advantage of multiple character truncation is that it allows to search for different spellings of the word.

13. The advantage of the single character truncation that it can avoid meaningless results.

14. It is very difficult to find suitable literature sources in complex online catalogues.

15. Library websites have a separate gateway for searching electronic resources.

Task 2

Discuss in pairs. Use the information from the Video.

1. What categories of sources can you name?

2. Can the research libraries provide free digital access to literature?

3. What is the difference between headwords and keywords?

4. What is the starting point of literature research?

5. What are the main aspects of research logic?

6. What categories of sources can you name?

Speaking

Task 1

Discuss with your partner what skills you need to develop to find information easily. Make a list.

1. __________________________________________

2. __________________________________________

3. __________________________________________

Task 2 Study the search techniques described below and define which ones the most useful from your point of view.