Instructions: For each question, click on the radio button beside your answer. When you have completed the entire quiz, click the “Submit my answers” button at the bottom of the page to receive your results.

Question 1:

________ is a useful strategy for finding a topic for a research paper.
a) Considering a topic you have researched and written on before
b) Considering a topic that you or someone else might be interested in
c) Waiting for a suitable topic to come to you
d) All of the above are useful strategies.

Question 2:

Before beginning your major research, it is important to ________.
a) be an expert on your topic
b) exhaustively understand research methods and procedures
c) have narrowed down your topic
d) have several distraction-free days ahead so that you can focus on research

Question 3:

If you use a research question as your thesis, ________.
a) you should answer the question in your first body paragraph
b) you should answer the question in your last body paragraph
c) your essay should focus on answer(s) to the question
d) you do not need to answer the question at all in your essay

Question 4:

One purpose of a research proposal is to persuade your instructor that you ________.
a) are clear in your own mind about all the sources you intend to use
b) have prepared adequately to undertake the project
c) are ready to begin writing the first draft
d) All of the above.

Question 5:

At a minimum, a proposal should include ________.
a) a description of the proposed project
b) information about your methodology
c) both A and B
d) neither A nor B

Question 6:

While taking research notes, it is important to ________.
a) carefully separate your own ideas from your research findings
b) include the complete names of authors and book and article titles
c) record the page numbers of the sources you consulted
d) All of the above.

Question 7:

Before beginning the research project, you should be clear on ________.
a) the types of sources applicable to your topic and how to search for them
b) the preferred citation style for your paper
c) the structure of your paper
d) All of the above.

Question 8:

Question 9:

An effective research strategy is to begin with ________.
a) subject guides and other reference works
b) websites, then proceed to library sources
c) the specific, then proceed to the general
d) non-academic sources, then proceed to academic ones

Question 10:

In general, articles are often superior to books in their ________.
a) reliability
b) depth of analysis
c) currency
d) All of the above.

Question 11:

Keywords are not ________.
a) words that appear in the article’s title
b) words that can be used as search terms
c) words that identify the article’s main concepts
d) words that can be used to help expand or limit a search

Question 12:

________ is not a Boolean operator.
a) And
b) Or
c) Nor
d) All of the above.

Question 13:

Using a truncation symbol or wildcard in the search process may ________.
a) increase your results
b) decrease your results
c) affect the relevance of your results
d) have no effect on your results

Question 14:

________ is not an example of a search limiter.
a) Publication date range
b) Publication type
c) Scholarly or peer-reviewed journals
d) Descriptor

Question 15:

Open-access resources are ________.
a) freely available to anyone with a computer
b) available to anyone by subscription
c) not considered reliable sources and so should not be used by student researchers
d) sites where anyone can publish their views

Question 16:

Reputable websites ________.
a) are associated with experts and credible organizations
b) always present up-to-date information
c) do not need to include information about their sponsors
d) All of the above.

Question 17:

A recent source can be described as one in which ________.
a) the information was updated less than 1 year ago
b) the information is no more than 2 years old
c) the information is no more than 10 years old
d) Currency of information can vary depending on the topic.

Question 18:

________ is not an effective method for integrating a source.
a) Summary
b) Paraphrase
c) Classification
d) Direct quotation

Question 19:

A paraphrase differs from a summary in that a paraphrase ________.
a) is written in your own words
b) includes more of the original
c) includes at least one direct quotation from the source
d) does not require a citation

Question 20:

You should consider using a direct quotation if the material you are quoting ________.
a) involves a statistic
b) is essentially factual
c) both A and B
d) neither A nor B

Question 21:

If the words you quote directly end with a mark of punctuation, you should ________.
a) include the punctuation right before the second quotation mark
b) include the punctuation but place it outside the second quotation mark
c) not include the punctuation mark from the source
d) be consistent and use whichever method you have used in the rest of your paper

Question 22:

You can leave words out of a direct quotation if ________.
a) they are unimportant or distracting
b) leaving them in will cause the quotation to be more than four lines long
c) you wish to alter the meaning of the passage you are quoting directly
d) You should not leave words out a direct quotation under any circumstances.

Question 23:

When leaving out words in the middle of a sentence that is quoted directly, you indicate the omission by using ________.
a) three spaced dots
b) four spaced dots
c) three spaced dots surrounded by square brackets
d) You should not leave words out a direct quotation under any circumstances.

Question 24:

Square brackets can be used within a direct quotation to indicate ________.
a) that one or more words have been left out
b) a grammatical or stylistic change to the original
c) that lesser importance should be attached to the words enclosed by brackets
d) All of the above.

Question 25:

Plagiarism can described as ________.
a) the use of another’s ideas without adequate acknowledgment
b) the use of another’s words without adequate acknowledgment
c) the use of another’s words, ideas, or sentence structure without adequate acknowledgment
d) both A and B

Question 26:

________ may not require a citation in an essay.
a) A fact that you summarized rather than quoted directly
b) A fact that is mentioned on several pages of the source in which you found it
c) A fact that falls under the category of general knowledge
d) All of the above.

Higher Education

Becoming an Active Reader: Chapter 5