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Minnesota State University Mankato

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“Minnesota State Mankato supplies its students with countless valuable opportunities—whether it be starting a business with your Integrated Business Experience classmates in a low-risk environment, leading 30-40 new students as a Community Advisor during their transition to college, or joining a club or organization that presents critical values, beliefs, and support.”

Harley Ries
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Information Literacy Toolkit

Competency Two

Articulate the specific information needed to in order to begin academic inquiries and avoid information overload

Identify Gaps in Knowledge

	Introductory	Intermediate	Advanced
2.a	Identify gaps in their knowledge base	Identify gaps in their disciplinary knowledge base	Identify gaps in a discipline's body of knowledge

Developing Your Research Question
Activity or Assignment: Includes a "How do I create research questions" worksheet and instructions for a small group discussion

Developing your Research Topic Worksheet
Activity or Assignment: A worksheet to help students develop a research topic by Project CORA

Defining a Research Topic

	Introductory	Intermediate	Advanced
2.b	Define the topic	Define the topic within the context of discipline	Develop an original research question that contributes to the body of knowledge in the field

Research Interest Worksheet
Activity or Assignment: This worksheet helps students generate topic ideas
Narrowing your Topic Worksheet

Identify Search Words

	Introductory	Intermediate	Advanced
2.c	Identify search words related to topic	Identify discipline-specific search words related to topic	Break down complex research questions to help facilitate searching

Search Worksheet and Concept Map
Activity or Assignment: This worksheet will help students organize research concepts and find and refine research terms.

Revising Search

	Introductory	Intermediate	Advanced
2.d	Revise search words (i.e. narrow/broaden) for an appropriate research scope	Revise discipline-specific search words for an appropriate research scope	Revise research question(s) to manage an appropriate research scope

Information Think Pair Share
Activity: This think-pair-share activity helps students to reflect on how information is used in coursework and in everyday life

Narrowing Your Research Topic
Video: This tutorial offers an overview of how to narrow a topic when researching. The video offers a few examples of how to find subtopics, including limiting sources and focusing on different aspects of a topic. We use the MavScholar database and the topic of E-cigarettes as an example.
Finding Articles by Topic
Interactive DIY Tutorial: This tutorial will walk you through searching for articles at MSU.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.