On Monday, September 22, we will meet outside the entrance to the library on the 4th floor of the Atrium. Library Instructor Betsy Crenshaw will introduce you to the library and how you can use the library’s resources for research.

For our class, you will rely on the library’s research resources for the second major project, which gives you an opportunity to learn more about your major and plan what contributions that you would like to make in that field.

It’s never too soon to begin thinking about the second major project even though we have just begun working on project one, because if you prime your brain to think about something that you will be engaged in at a later date, you give your brain a “heads-up” that enables it to work on the problem in ways you might not be consciously aware. Priming your brain for a task or a problem has been shown to improve performance.

It is with that in mind that you will do some research during our library visit to help familiarize yourself with the library’s resources and to prime yourself to think about project two. During our visit to the library, I would like you to find three sources–a book, a journal article, and a magazine/newspaper article–related to your major. Using your copy of A Writer’s Reference, write into your notebook the information that you need for an MLA works cited list from each of these sources. Before Monday, look over section 4b beginning on page 398 of A Writer’s Reference to see what general kinds of information that you should record. After writing down this information in your notebooks, bring that to class on next Monday, September 29, when we will spend some time formatting it for a basic MLA Works Cited list. Remember to bring your notes and A Writer’s Reference to class on that day, too.