This chapter is one of the few places in Connections that we have created hypothetical student work instead of using actual examples. Although this example is fictional, we think that it is one of the most useful chapters in the book. If you have time, and if teaching research skills is important to your class, we strongly recommend that you try to have your students work on an extended research project like this one. In other words, along with demonstrating research skills, we think of this chapter as an extended assignment in its own right. If you have students go through this kind of multi-staged research project it will provide good opportunities for learning Internet research skills and allow the students to delve deeply into the intricacies of a topic. The first additional exercise is another example of a multi-staged research assignment.
Note: This exercise is designed as an in-class workshop. As an instructor, you may want to provide several articles for your students to explore, or you may want to make students find appropriate materials as part of the assignment. The key will be to locate suitable articles. Editorials will work much better than straightforward news articles. Try looking at the opinions pages of on-line newspapers or other publications. Newsgroup articles will often make good critical reading examples as well.
The purpose of this exercise is to practice the critical reading skills discussed in Chapter Five by analyzing an Internet resource found in class. Following the model provided by our discussion of "Ban Boxing," look closely at the various elements of the article.