COM 300 :: Assignment 2 - Community :: 9% of final grade :: Due 16 May at 5pm
Assignment Description:
In this community assignment, you will 1) explore theories related to your final project, 2) demonstrate
your ability to search for and evaluate the credibility of online information, and 3) cite your sources
properly (APA style 5th edition).
In a blog entry (750-1500 words) and via eSubmit, please address the following by 5 pm on Sunday
16 May
1. Re-state the research area you have selected.
(1-2 sentences – reflect any adjustments/refinements in your research project)
2. Think about the networks and community related to your research topic. Identify at least three
communities or networks related to your topic area. Provide a list of at least 5 search queries
(include any Booleans or special syntax you used to complete the search) and the search engines,
databases or directories used to find these networks. Please include the number of results you got
for each topic search. Present this information in a bulleted list or a table.
3. Provide an annotated list of URLs for at least 3 more digital resources related to your topic.
Each resource must be from a unique source; that is, all three cannot be from Lexis-Nexis.
Remember that the final project must have scholarly citations as well as those from reputable
media. Provide the following information for each site/document (about 2-3 paragraphs for each
resource):
a. Site or document name.
b. Site publisher or document author.
c. Describe the kind of information provided. What are the key arguments it makes?
d. Explain how you know that this site provides useful, credible, and current information.
e. Explain how you think this site will be useful to you as you research your final project.
f. Provide the proper APA citation for this site or document.
4. Think about the networks and community related to your research area. How can you relate
theories from readings (Weeks 1-7) to explain their presence, importance, structure? (2-3
paragraphs)
5. Explain what you will do in the remaining weeks to complete your project. (1-2 paragraphs)
Grade Criteria
4.0 Student employs a creative and comprehensive search strategy that employs a number of the
techniques and compares results across a variety of search engines/directories (not just
Google); provides excellent annotation of each site; offers well-thought out explanation why
the sites/documents included are credible and useful. Resources are more scholarly in nature;
no significant spelling, grammatical, usage, or APA style errors.
3.0 Student employs a creative searching strategy, but it could be more comprehensive or
exhaustive; gives good annotation; offers relatively good information about resource
credibility; a few spelling, grammatical, usage, and/or APA style errors. Resources are
mostly scholarly in nature.
2.0 Student demonstrates a sufficiency in searching strategy, but relied heavily on Google;
annotates by quoting directly from the site; offers few details or relatively unconvincing
argument about site credibility; a number of spelling, grammatical, usage and/or APA style
errors. Resources are mostly popular in nature.
1.0 Bibliography contains fewer than required five (5) sites; uncreative searching strategy (relies
solely on one search tool); unconvincing explanation of how sites relate to the topic;
insufficient summaries; significant number of spelling, grammatical, usage, and APA style
errors.
0.0 Annotated fewer than five (5) sites and all were short, popular articles; no explanation about
why these sites were useful; major spelling, grammatical, usage, and APA style errors.