The Search for the Skunk Ape

When reading through the four different Modules for the Information Literacy Tutorial, I realized that I already knew some of the information that was explained, but I also discovered new tips that could be very helpful for years to come. The skills that I use a lot now are the library catalogs, databases, search engines, and the librarians who help me figure out what type of database to use. As a student here at FGCU, I already knew what research is mostly used for, which consists of oral presentations, term papers, classroom discussions, and teaching others. The skill I knew most about was plagiarism. Every one of my professors stress the fact that students should never plagiarize in a paper. Instead, students need to use quotations and cite the source right after or summarize the source in a persons own words.
On the other hand, some of the skills I just learned would have definitely been helpful to learn before taking composition one and two. I learned to make sure ones research topic was not to broad, but also not to narrow. A good balanced topic will make a person's research easier. Another thing that would have been very helpful is learning how to get a full text article in a database. I have always had trouble with that and sometimes I just have to settle with just the information that is provided. The one skill that really taught me a lot was that different formats of information offer different types of information. For example, recent news can be found in newspapers or on the web and history can be found in books and encyclopedias. This is something that teachers should look into showing their composition one students to improve their research papers. One thing that was not talked about was personal interviews. Is using a personal interview okay to have in a research paper? Everything else and all of my questions were answered by watching this tutorial!