Synopses & Reviews
Every day researchers face an onslaught of irrelevant, inaccurate, and sometimes insidious information. While new technologies provide powerful tools for accessing knowledge, not all information is created equal. Valuable information may be tucked away on a shelf, buried on the hundredth page of search results, or hidden behind digital barriers. With so many obstacles to effective research, it is vital that higher education students master the art of inquiry.
Information Now is an innovative approach to information literacy that will reinvent the way college students think about research. Instead of the typical textbook format, it uses illustrations, humor, and reflective exercises to teach students how to become savvy researchers. Students will learn how to evaluate information, to incorporate it into their existing knowledge base, to wield it effectively, and to understand the ethical issues surrounding its use. Written by two library professionals, it incorporates concepts and skills drawn from the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education and their Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Thoroughly researched and highly engaging, Information Now offers the tools that students need to become powerful consumers and creators of information.
Whether used by a high school student tackling a big paper, an undergrad facing the newness of a university library, or a writer wanting to go beyond Google, Information Now is a powerful tool for any researcher’s arsenal.
Review
"
Information Now is the research guide undergrads, faculty, and librarians did not know they were waiting for. Combining the fun of comics with wit and useful knowledge,
Information Now provides new researchers a visually engaging guide to succeed in the world of academic research. I highly recommend librarians and faculty use it to help undergraduates actively engage with the research process in a meaningful, yet super fun way. By using the comic format to ease undergrads into the challenging world of academic research, the authors have created one of the most relevant, accessible, and entertaining guides to research available.
Upson, Hall, and Cannon might not save the world with this book, but they are definitely saving the sanity of overwhelmed undergraduates facing their first college papers. Highly recommended for academic library collections and classroom instruction."
Review
"In today’s world of information overload, it is often difficult for students, the average citizen, and even faculty to wade through the mass of clutter out there in the world. So much of the information we encounter in our day-to-day lives is not only irrelevant, it’s often wrong. Increasingly, information literacy is a skill that everyone needs to function in our complex world and without it most of us are lost trying to navigate through the maze. Upson, Hall, and Cannon’s Information Now provides a practical guide for all of us to find our way around. They show us HOW and WHY it’s important to think about information literacy and the steps to take to make sure we do it correctly. It’s all here in this sequential art textbook: searching techniques, critical thinking, how information is organized, problems of plagiarism, copyright, and correct citation, databases, peer reviewed sources, metadata, Boolean operators, and much more. Information Now is a godsend and I can’t wait to use it in the classroom."
Review
“Upson and Hall’s experience as instruction librarians ensures that Information Now’s presentation of information literacy aligns with professional standards and practices, while cartoonist Cannon’s wry, animated style serves to reassure readers. Let their intrepid librarian help guide your students through morasses such as information overload, controlled vocabulary, scholarly publishing, the deep Web, and plagiarism. You won’t regret it.”
Synopsis
This comics-style collaboration between rhetoricians Elizabeth Losh and Jonathan Alexander and illustrator team Big Time Attic presents the content of the composition course in a form designed to draw students in. Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing covers what first-year college writers need to know — the writing process, critical analysis, argument, research, revision, and presentation — in a visual format that brings rhetorical concepts to life through examples ranging from Aristotle to YouTube.
Synopsis
Information literacy is generally defined as the ability to recognize situations in which information is needed and to find, evaluate, and effectively use relevant information from a variety of media. It is an essential skill set in all academic disciplines at all levels of education and also in professional and personal life. The recent dramatic changes in the technologies of creating, storing, and retrieving content have made information at once more accessible but also more difficult to critically evaluate, and universities have increasingly come to recognize that effective instruction in information literacy is essential to incoming students success in their academic careers and beyond. With that goal in mind, Matt Upson, C. Michael Hall, and Kevin Cannon have created a unique guide in graphic-novel format that instructs undergraduate students in the fundamental research skills that constitute information literacy that is both academically sound and wildly imaginative and engaging. Following the Association of College and University Libraries Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, the guide stresses skills such as determining the extent of information needed for a research project, accessing the needed information effectively and efficiently, evaluating information and sources critically, incorporating selected information into ones knowledge base, using information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, and understanding the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information. Each of the eight chapters ends with exercises that allow students to apply their knowledge to relevant scenarios, and the manuscript concludes with a glossary of critical terms.
About the Author
Matt Upson is assistant professor and director of library undergraduate services at Oklahoma State University.C. Michael Hall is a writer, cartoonist, and public speaker who advocates for comics and graphic novels in libraries and educational settings and creates visual aids for libraries.Kevin Cannon is the illustrator of numerous educational and fictional graphic texts, including Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing and The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Spaces for Writing Discovering Contexts for Writing
Going Boldly Through Writing Processes
Exploring Visual Literacy
ReFrame: Why Rhetoric? Why a Comic Book?
1) Why Rhetoric?
Piecing Together a Definition of Rhetoric
Reanimating Ancient Views of Rhetoric
Exploring Rhetorical Concepts
ReFrame: What Does Aristotle Have to Do with Me?
2) Reading Strategically
Finding Secret Meanings with Critical Analysis
Putting the Pieces Together with Synthesi
Using Reading Strategies to Find and Follow Clues
Imagining the Plans of Ideal Readers
ReFrame: How Do I Read This?
3) Writing Identities
Leaping into Identities in Writing
Trying Out Choices for Different Audiences
Revealing the Performer Within the Text
ReFrame: WhatÕs My Identity?
4) Argument Beyond Pro and Con
Spotlighting Strategies for Argument
Setting the Scene for Arguable Assertions
Zooming in on Persuasive Argument
Focusing on Effective Organization
ReFrame: The Office Hour!
5) Research: More Than Detective Work
Keeping the Story Straight
Tracking Down Sources
Deciding Which Sources to Trust
Making Sources Talk: Summary, Paraphrase, Quotation
ReFrame: Wrong Turns and Shortcuts
6) Rethinking Revision
Looking Beyond the Red Ink
Reviewing Rhetorically
Seeing Through Others' Eyes
Revising Radically
ReFrame: Am I Missing Something?
7) Going Public
Seeing the Future of Genres
Moving among Media
Entering the Final Frontier with Publication
ReFrame: How Does This Look?
Selections are subject to change