Social Ecology 195                                                                   Julia Gelfand                 Tom Babayan

Field Studies - Levine                                                               Science Library 228     Science Library 226

Summer Session II 2006                                                           jgelfand@uci.edu          tbabayan@uci.edu

                                                                                                949-824-4971             949-824-9826

 

The two options for writing assignments for this section of Field Studies will encourage you to use a variety of information resources.  This handout will provide some hints about different approaches and some tools, resources and strategies you can employ to make the learning experience more integrated with your social ecology curriculum.  For each assignment you must use at least three scholarly journal articles (meaning that they have been refereed).

 

1.                  Application to Graduate School, Autobiographical Statement, Research Summary

 

In addition to the Online Resources included with your course syllabus, the following resources may be of interest to you:

 

·        Quick Reference List of Resources on Colleges & Universities - these include program rankings, guides, etc

·        University Catalogs - program descriptions - graduate applications - check out the institution online and go to "catalog or academic unit" and select the program you are interested in - review the requirements for Graduate Admissions, etc.  A list of faculty will be noted as will the program goals, and course descriptions.   An example would be to go to "Academic & Research" link on the http://www.lib.uci.edu and choose the "School" and then the "Department" and then "Graduate Program"

·        Review books and resources such as:

      Asher, Donald, Graduate admissions essays : write your way into the graduate school of your choice.  Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2000.  Langson Library Ref LB 2366.2 A84 2000

      Stelzer, Richard J., How to write a winning personal statement for graduate and professional school, 3rd ed. Princeton, NJ: Peterson's, 1997.  Call Number: Langson Reference LB 2351.52 S74 1997

     

 

2.                  Application for a Job, Autobiographical Statement, Research Summary and Directions

 

You will need to search the business literature to determine information about the corporate culture of the company or organization to which you are applying.  Please determine if it is a non-profit or a profit-generating (or losing) establishment.  There are many non-profit sources online.  

  • Basic business resources are identified and described on the Management Subject Page.  
  • You will want to know where the headquarters are, the principal players, the major products or services of the organization.  You may want to conduct a web search (via Google or another engine) to see what kind of web presence the organization has.
  • You may want to review the Quick Reference resources on Careers and Jobs which include an online presence about opportunities in different sectors
  • Associations Unlimited - national directory of both profit/non-profit organizations - provides good contact information and descriptive information about organization & its scope, publications, etc.

           

For the majority of your paper, you will need to support your personal autobiographical statements and substantiate with goals that are stated in the scholarly literature.  This will likely  require a literature review - this can be accomplished in several ways.  Use the Library website as a point of departure for:

·        Online Databases - access to journal literature, conference proceedings, some books and book chapters and dissertations, from the scholarly, trade and a variety of information sources by subject or keyword - appropriate examples include those listed on the Subject Guides prepared for each Department in the School of Social Ecology and found under "How to Find Journal Articles":

     

o       PsycINFO - can easily find empirical studies by Methodology - a descriptive guide on how to search the database is available

o       Annual Reviews - in different subject areas; offers overview of literature on a topic with comprehensive bibliographic references

o       ERIC - covers all aspects of education, including higher education

o       Sociological Abstracts

o       Social Services Abstracts

o       Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management

o       Web of Science

o       Business Source Premier**

o       Factiva - a business database containing fulltext trade literature coverage

o       Expanded Academic ASAP

o       Lexis Nexis Academic Universe - for News & Legal Resources

o       Westlaw Campus - legal database

o       many others - contact librarians for additional assistance

·        Google Scholar -

·        Other web resources

o       Community Toolkit

·        Citation Sources - Consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed., 2001 found at all UCI Library Reference Desks at BF 76.7 P83 2001 or online citation information

·        Hints for Success

o       Read assignment carefully

o       Write from an outline - then realize information gaps to fill

o       Identify context

o       Find appropriate studies and research

o       Cite information accurately

o       Don't procrastinate

 

Additional Information - consider some of the following resources:

  • Ask a Librarian for eMail, LiveCHAT reference services, or to schedule a Research Consultation, visit Reference Desk