BUS 360: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

1. BUS 360: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Andrea Cameron Business Librarian, SFU Surrey amcamero@sfu.ca Spring 2014

2. The research process: • Choose a research question • Think of some sub-questions • Identify likely publishers • Search and cycle your search • Evaluate your results • Write your report

3. Who might publish the information you want?

4. Scholarly vs. popular publications REVIEW: What’s a scholarly article? What’s a popular article? How can you tell?

5. Information quality For your report, you may have difficulty finding useful scholarly articles, so you will have to evaluateevery fact and opinion that you find. What are some of the characteristics you will look for in any type of information?

6. Information quality: The “3 Rs” • Reliability • Is the source credible? • Recency • How current is the information? • Relevance • Does it apply to your topic?

7. Reliability • When you cite a scholarly article, you seldom need to evaluate the article’s reliability. • The peer review process does most of the work for you. • All types of sources • Documentation = Bibliography + methodology • Authority = Author info • Completeness = Length • Purpose = Language + images

8. Relevance Transferability: How well does the information you've found transfer to your case? • Geography • Example: Is the study you’ve found from Japan still relevant to your topic? • Industry • Example: Is the industry you have found information for relevant to the one you are focusing on? • Scalability: How well does the scale of the information you’ve found apply to your case? • Example: Is information about Starbucks relevant to a small coffee shop in Surrey?

9. Information quality • Remember: Decisions will be made based on the report and recommendations that you deliver. • You might not find many facts/opinions that meet the 3Rs perfectly. • Try to anticipate (and answer) the questions that your audience will have about the information you’ve included. • If you notice something, assume that they will notice it. • If it’s relevant, briefly explain your rationale for including it.

10. Evaluating an article excerpt • Evaluate the reliability, relevance and recencyof the articles on your handout: • 'E-Cigarettes' in the Workplace: Where There's No Smoke, There Still May Be Fire • How credibility affects eWOM reading: The influences of expertise, trustworthiness, and similarity on utilitarian and social functions Consider ….the authority of the author and publication; the documentation provided (e.g. bibliography); the audience and how relevant it might be to your research etc.

11. Where to get help

12. Write your paper & cite your sources

13. BUS 360 wiki

14. BUS 360 wiki

15. BUS 360 wiki

16. BUS 360 wiki

17. BUS 360 wiki

18. Getting help

19. Getting Help • Ask anyone at the reference desk in any of the three campus libraries • Use our Ask a Librarianservices (via the Library home page) to contact a librarian (by phone, IM, email, text). • Contact : Andrea Cameron amcamero@sfu.ca Class? Due Date? Where have you searched? How have you searched? Found anything close to what you need?