GOAL: You will collect sources about your topic of interest, focusing on advocacy groups and professional organizations that act on the topic.

GOAL: You will collect sources about your topic of interest, focusing on advocacy groups and professional organizations that act on the topic. You will be studying how professional organizations and advocacy groups that actively try to solve problems related to the topic, view, understand, and engage with the topic. Ideally, you will find advocacy in your local community, which can help you understand the local context for your topic.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Name your current topic at the top of the research log. The topic you focus on must be related to your discipline of study and something of interest to you.
2. Use the key terms you found looking at the subject guides from the library. Remember to use related terms.
3. Collect 8-10 sources. Focus on professional organizations and advocacy groups. DO NOT use library databases as you search for sources. All sources are easy to find in open browsers.
4. Organize each source following this organizational structure:

• Key terms used for search.
• Author name, Date of publication, Article name, Publication name (TIP: consider formatting in APA, which will save you time later in the semester).
• Where you found the article (via Google search, linked to Twitter, FB, other)
• 1-2 sentences about the exigence the article seeks to address.
• New key terms: Words and terminology the article uses to describe the topic (especially if they are different from your search terms). Focus on synonyms and antonyms. For example, you may search for mental health amongst nurses, and the article may used words like “burnout” to describe the problem.
• Quotes that you want to keep from the article, because you think they are useful to understanding the conversation/topic (depending on the article and your interests, this section could include many quotes).
• Make a connection: How does this source engage with other sources you found? Does it agree, partially agree, partially disagree, disagree, with other sources? Does it expand on an idea? Does it introduce another perspective?

RECOMMENDATIONS: As you collect sources, remember that you will use the research log for the rest of the semester. Collect information so that it is useful to you in 6-10 weeks. As a genre, research logs are internal documents. The audience for a research log is generally the researcher and no one else. The research log is a tool to help you keep a lot of information organized in a way that is usable later on.

GRADING CRITERIA: I will be assessing the log based on completion and appropriateness of sources (looking at publication and year of publication).

HOW TO SEARCH: You will have to think creatively about search terms.

•  to search for professional organizations that focus on nurses, you may have to search key terms nursing AND professional organization.
• to search for advocacy groups (for example, immigration), you may have to search using a combination of terms like: advocacy AND immigration AND civil rights.
• be creative and patient. Government websites might provide good information. University research institutes and centers might also yield useful articles.

REFLECTION: Answer the following questions.

Use examples from the sources.

You must name the sources and quote the sources to receive credit for this response:

• List the key terms you are finding and how they vary by source.
• What types of genres are professional organizations and advocacy groups use to communicate about your topic (blogs, white papers, press releases, other)? Provide specific examples.
• Are the sources providing similar or different perspectives?
• Can you tell how the audiences are different for different types of publications and sources? Provide specific examples, name sources, use quotes from the sources to illustrate your point.
• How is the topic connected to your field of study, major or discipline? Provide a specific example, naming the sources.

GRADING CRITERIA: I will be looking at how you are using examples from the sources to illustrate your point. For example, I expect to see quotes form the articles that show how the source addresses and audience. I expect a list of key terms that shows you have found multiple sources that present a variety of perspectives about your topic.