Syllabus developed for required English graduate course, Fall 2011.

1. GRAD 5124
English Language and Literature Research Skills
Fall 2011
Class Information
August 22-December 4, 2011
ONLINE: Course is available via Scholar: https://scholar.vt.edu/portal/site/ENGLresearchskills
Instructor Information
Rebecca K. Miller, MSLS
Office: 5004 Newman Library
Office Hours: By appointment
Contact: millerrk@vt.edu; 540-231-9669
What is research? “[research is] a social, collaborative act that draws on and contributes to the
work of a community that cares about a given body of knowledge…by the social definition of
research, the solitary researcher is not at all solitary: the sense of what can and should be done
is derived from the knowledge community…his/her work of discovery is impossible without
continuous recovery of the work of others in the community.”
Bizzell, Patricia and Bruce Herzberg. “Research as a Social Act.” The Clearing House 60 (March
1987): 304.
Course Description & Relevancy
This course is intended to guide you to the resources appropriate to their research and the
search strategies needed to access the information. Moreover, I hope that this course will
inspire you to see research as a scholarly conversation among peers. Although this one-hour
required course is pass/fail, you will be expected to participate in the activities and assignments
within each module.
This course has been designed with two concepts in mind: (1) that it should address the
standards and guidelines for English disciplines, set forth by the Association of College and
Research Libraries (see readings, Module 1), and (2) that it should complement and support the
research you will work on in your ENGL 5014 course. You’ll notice that the topics covered in
GRAD 5124 and ENGL 5014 are very similar, and that we sometimes are discussing the same
thing at the same time. Use this to your advantage, and really give some thought to the way
these two different courses complement each other. This may be helpful for you when you start
to write your blog posts for participation credit.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, students will:
 Recognize and discuss the structure of information within the field of literary research
 Identify, select, and use key literary research tools to locate relevant information
 Create effective search strategies and modify them as needed
1

2.  Recognize that some information sources are more authoritative than others, and
demonstrate critical thinking while evaluating information
 Recognize and discuss the technical and ethical issues involved in writing research
essays
 Locate and/or discover information about the literary profession
 Use technology tools to collaboratively create a reference source
Course Prerequisites
All students enrolled in this course must be enrolled as graduate students within the Virginia
Tech Department of English.
Course Communication
In a way, this course focuses quite a lot on communication: the different ways researchers
communicate, and how scholarship is really a unique form of communication. However, in this
course, we will use a few more prosaic methods of communication.
 Scholar: I will post announcements, links, and help sheets within the GRAD 5124
Scholar site. Be sure to regularly log into this site to make sure you don’t miss anything
or fall behind on the modules.
 Email: I will communicate with you using your Virginia Tech email address. Any emails
that you send to me will be answered within 48 hours, unless it’s weekend email.
Weekend email will be answered by 5 p.m. on Monday. Please don’t expect for late-
night emails to be answered immediately; they will most likely be answered sometime
after 8 a.m. the next day.
 In-person: Although this is an online class, many students find it helpful to have several
option in-person sessions. This semester, I have included two supplementary, in-person
options. However, if you are unable to make it to these sessions, or need more
sessions, please do NOT hesitate to contact me. I am more than willing to set up a one-
on-one session with you and go over any questions or concerns that you may have.
 Blog: When you read about the Participation requirement of this course, you will note
that we are using a class blog to facilitate conversation. You will be required to post at
least 8 times to this blog, and you’ll see the timeline for these blog posts listed within
the schedule of topics at the end of this syllabus. More information about this will be
discussed under “Participation” on p. 4 of this syllabus.
Texts
Required: None. All assigned readings will be provided via Scholar, the World Wide Web, or
electronic reserves. A full bibliography of course readings is posted in Scholar in the
“Resources” folder, within the “Course Readings Help” subfolder.
Recommended: If you like what we read, and decide that you’d like to add some of these texts
to your personal professional library, here are some full citations:
 Correa, Delia Da Sousa and W. R. Owens. The Handbook of Literary Research. 2nd ed.
New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
 Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: Modern
Language Association of America, 2009. Print.
 Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. New York:
Modern Language Association of America, 2008. Print.
2

3.  Harner, James L. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in
English Literary Studies. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008.
Print.
Course/Technology Requirements
This course will be delivered entirely through Scholar. This course includes a total of 14
modules, and each module has been designed uniformly, so that you always know what to
expect. Each module begins with a “module at a glance” so that you have a complete overview
of the lesson and a checklist of activities you need to complete. Due dates are listed in bold at
the top of each module at a glance.
Required Software: You should be able to use standard word processing, navigate standard web
browsers (Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer), install plug-ins and java when necessary.
Minimum Technical Skills: You will need broadband access to the Internet, Adobe Acrobat
Reader, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and the ability to access movie clips and podcasts. A Flash
player will also be needed. You can download free versions of these software:
 Adobe Reader (http://get.adobe.com/reader/)
 Flash (http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/downloads.html)
Any other technologies or technology skills not listed here will be addressed through class
instruction (e.g., wiki and blog software).
On Campus Computer Labs
IF you are experiencing any sort of technical issues, you may want to know where you can find
functioning computers and internet access. A list of all the software available in on-campus
computer labs is available: http://www.lib.vt.edu/about/campus-software.html.
Grading Policies
Grades: This is a pass/fail course. All class assignments will detail points, which will be awarded
according to a rubric. For individual assignments AND the final course grade, any scores above
70% will be considered passing; likewise, any score below 70% will be considered failing. You
will be given multiple chances to resubmit corrected assignments if the original score is below
80%. All assignments will be posted with the total number of points possible, along with the
rubric that will be used for assessing the assignment.
Incompletes: Incompletes in this course are grated only in extremely rare circumstances. Please
do everything you can to stay on top of this course throughout the semester.
Late assignments: Late or missed assignments will only be accepted for full credit under
documented, extenuating circumstances, which may include:
 Illness or injury: you will need to provide a health professional’s note for
documentation
 Death: you will need to provide an obituary, funeral program, or death certificate for
documentation
 Other emergency: you will need to provide any appropriate documentation
Late or missed assignments that do not fall within this description will not be accepted. If you
realize that you need more time to complete a particular assignment, you will automatically be
3

4. granted an extension as long as you contact the instructor BEFORE the assignment’s due date.
Contacting the instructor the same day that an assignment is due will not result in an extension.
Course Participation (worth a total of 80 points)
Since this is an online course, you will need to participate in discussions with your
community of fellow scholars through the class blog. During the course of the
semester, you will write at least 8 blog posts that meet the standards described in the
rubric posted within the “Class Blog (Participation) Help” subfolder, located within the
“Resources” folder in the Scholar site.
The blog is available: http://grad5124fall2011.blogspot.com/. Please refer to the “Class
Blog (Participation) Help” subfolder, located within the “Resources” folder in the Scholar
site for instructions on (1) creating an account and (2) posting to this blog.
Weekly Assignments (worth a total of 140 points)
Each week, there will be one assignment associated with the material that we cover in
each module. The assignment might be a quiz or something more creative. Since there
are 14 modules, assignments associated with the modules will always add up to 10
points per module; each assignment will be described within the module it is associated
with.
Final Project (worth a total of 150 points)
Your final project will ultimately consist of your contributions to a class wiki, created
with PBWorks software. The full details of this final project are outlined in the “Class
Wiki (Final Project) Help” subfolder, located within the “Resources” folder in the Scholar
site.
The wiki is available: http://grad5124fall2011.pbworks.com. Please refer to the “Class
Wiki (Final Project) Help” subfolder, located within the “Resources” folder in the Scholar
site for details on (1) creating an account for the wiki and (2) editing the wiki.
Extra Credit
You have the opportunity to gain extra credit by going above and beyond the
requirements for your course participation and your final project. You can earn up to 5
points of extra credit per extra blog post and extra annotated bibliography item. That
means that your 9th blog post could earn 5 extra credit points, as could your 11th
annotated bibliography item added to the wiki. These items will be assessed according
to the original rubrics posted for these activities.
If you’ve been adding everything up, then you know all of the work in this course could
potentially equal 370 points. In order to pass this course, you would need to earn a total of 259
points.
Instructor Error
It is always possible that there will be problems with an assignment or lesson because of
instructor error. If this is the case, it is your responsibility to report the problem immediately,
and BEFORE the assignment is due. This means that you should look over each module before
4

5. its due date; when errors are discovered, the instructor will let everyone know, and then
proceed from there. No one will ever be penalized because of instructor error.
Technical Difficulties
One characteristic of an information literate student is the ability to deal with the potential
failure of technology! Much of this course relies on Scholar, the Internet, and other
technologies. This means that you may very well encounter problems that are due neither to
student nor to instructor error. If you experience technical difficulties, please report your issues
as soon as possible so that I can work with you to resolve them. Additionally, it’s always smart
to save, back up, or print whatever you may be working on, just in case!
Disability Services
If you have a disability that may have some impact on your work for this class and for which you
may require accommodations, please contact Services for Students with Disabilities. All contact
and location information is available: http://www.ssd.vt.edu/. After you receive your
accommodation letter, please contact the instructor to discuss your options as soon as possible.
Virginia Tech Honor Code
The Honor Code is the University policy which expressly forbids the following academic
violations:
1. Cheating -- Cheating includes the actual giving or receiving of any unauthorized aid or
assistance or the actual giving or receiving of any unfair advantage on any form of
academic work, or attempts thereof.
2. Plagiarism -- Plagiarism includes the copying of the language, structure, ideas and/or
thoughts of another and passing off same as one's own, original work, or attempts
thereof.
3. Falsification -- Falsification includes the statement of any untruth, either verbally or in
writing, with respect to any circumstances relevant to one's academic work, or attempts
thereof. Such acts include, but are not limited to, the forgery of official signatures,
tampering with official records, fraudulently adding or deleting information on academic
documents such as add/drop requests, or fraudulently changing an examination or
other academic work after the testing period or due date of the assignment.
Therefore, the student body at Virginia Tech will not tolerate any violation of the Honor Code.
All students, upon admission to this University, have pledged to abide by the Honor Code. Any
student found by the appropriate forum within the Honor System to have violated the Honor
Code shall be deemed guilty as charged.
The Graduate Honor System
Read a full overview of the Graduate Honor System here:
http://ghs.grads.vt.edu/about/index.html#ppt
Graduate Honor System Pledge: [signed by each student on the Graduate Admissions
Application]
I certify that all the information given on this application is true and correct. I will abide by rules
and regulations of the university. I will accept responsibility of the Honor Code of the university.
5

6. I pledge I will not lie or cheat. I understand violation of the Graduate Honor Code may result in
severe penalties, including dismissal from the university.
Tentative Course Calendar
This schedule of topics is subject to change, and may be adjusted as the course progresses;
however, you will be notified of any changes with appropriate advance notice.
The course week always begins on Monday at 12:00 a.m., and ends at 11:55 p.m. the next
Sunday night. You will be responsible for viewing all the posted lessons, and completing all the
posted readings, participation activities, and assignments by 11:55 p.m. on the date indicated in
the course schedule below. In order to help you focus on the week at hand, each module will
only open two weeks in advance of its deadline. For example, when you start this course, you
will be able to see Modules 1 and 2. On August 29, then Module 3 will open, and so forth.
Major Dates:
8/22: CLASS BEGINS
11/13: FINAL PROJECT DUE (All wiki contributions must be complete)
12/4: CLASS ENDS
Follow Modules 1-14 for everything else
Week 1: August 22-August 28
Module 1: Welcome, Course Overview, and Ethics
Week 2: August 29-September 4 (Blog Post 1 DUE)
Module 2: Overview of the Literary Researcher’s Toolbox, or, How Information is Organized &
Searched
There will be two opportunities for in-person library tours this week. I will send out a Doodle
poll during Week 1 to determine the best times for the most people.
Week 3: September 5-September 11 (Blog Post 2 DUE)
Module 3: Participating in Scholarly and Creative Communication
Week 4: September 12-September 18
Module 4: Tools, Part 1: Books and Special Collections
Week 5: September 19-September 25 (Blog Post 3 DUE)
Module 5: Tools, Part 2: Periodicals
Week 6: September 26-October 2
Module 6: Bibliographic Management
There will be two opportunities for in-person sessions regarding bibliographic management
tools Zotero and EndNote this week. I will send out a Doodle poll during Week 5 to determine
the best times for the most people.
Week 7: October 3-October 9 (Blog Post 4 DUE)
Module 7: Tools, Part 3: Literary Databases
6

7. Week 8: October 10-October 16
Module 8: Tools, Part 4: Related Databases
Week 9: October 17-October 23 (Blog Post 5 DUE)
Module 9: Tools, Part 5: Digital Archives and Other Initiatives
Week 10: October 24-October 30
Module 10: Teaching & Pedagogy
Week 11: October 31-November 6 (Blog Post 6 DUE)
Module 11: Theses & Dissertations
Week 12: November 7-November 13 (Final Project DUE)
Module 12: Your Digital Life, Part 1: Organizational Tools
Please note that your FINAL PROJECT is DUE this week, which may seem a bit early. Why so
early? The rough draft of your bibliographic essay for ENGL 5014 is due on November 17. You
should definitely have at least 10 sources selected at this point, and adding them to the wiki will
give me and your classmates some time to give you feedback before your final draft is due in a
few weeks.
Week 13: November 14-November 20 (Blog Post 7 DUE)
Module 13: Your Digital Life, Part 2: Participating in Your Professional Community
Week 14: November 21-November 27
Virginia Tech’s Thanksgiving Break
Nothing due this week: enjoy your break!
Week 15: November 28-December 4 (Blog Post 8 DUE)
Module 14: Copyright and Fair Use in Writing & Teaching
Course work officially ends after you complete Module 14
Week 15: December 5-December 11
Please consult me if you need any help or support in completing research or assignments for
your other courses!
7