Academic Discourse

ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

Discourse Communities

The Access Cycle

Finding research materials

The biggest thing you can learn is how to effectively, efficiently find, evaluate, and utilize high quality information in your field. That, as much as anyhthing else, is why you'll be worth the big bucks upon graduation.

Proprietary information (owned by corporations, etc., who must give permission for you to access and/or use information.) This is tricky, but not impossible. If you have a real need to know, call them up and ask. They may surprise you!

Invisible College -- talk to your instructors/professors. These folks love their area, or they wouldn't spend their entire working lives studying the stuff. Take advantage of that expertise. Drop by, or email them. Most are quite generous of their time and knowledge.
Meetings, Seminars, Workshops
Your professors teach what they do. Take their classes. Attend talks, plays, etc. Check out their websites.
Library materials on the web and at the physical institutions can be discovered through
- Indexes to scholarly materials made available in
  - Research reports
  - Journals of Professional Associations and Societies
  - Other peer reviewed journals
  - Searchable repositories of primary and secondary materials.
- Indexes to popular materials published in
  - Newspapers
  - Popular magazines
- Library Catalogs both web and physical
- Web Catalogs of Profit and Nonprofit Resources
  Google Scholar permits universal searches of available materials stored on JSTOR (journal storage), Oasis, ORBIS, WorldCat, etc.. As a member of the Millersville community, you can access many full articles even from home, and virtually all of them from campus. (Note: If you don't know how to use Google Scholar effectively, check with your professor, check with a librarian, or watch my Jing.)
Locate a copy of useful documents, reports, magazines, journals

In the library. These days, it only takes 24 hours for the average interlibrary loan, and it comes to you via email, so you can download and read it at home in your jammies. Couldn't be easier!
Online (sometimes)
- Google keywords (and keep trying new keywords until you find some that work)
- Google Scholar will help you find high quality materials in your field. Don't know how to use it? Ask a librarian (or me). Watch the Jing on the subject.

Talk to librarians
The electronic universe is awash in materials, and as a result, it can be difficult for nonprofessionals to distinguish quality materials from junk. That's why, increasingly, a university degree in a particular area of study is matter of learning the field well enough to be able to access and select quality materials in the field.

Librarians come in flavors, by the way.Find ot who the subject librarian is in the area you are trying to learn more about, and schedule time to chat with that area specialist. She or he usually has a master's degree in that area as well as a master's in Library Science.

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