Summary of Class 01: We had an orientation to the autumn course explaining the documents below, including what is expected of you and how you can excel with the new research. You learned about the course introduction and requirements, goal-setting, an introduction to social, political, and business issues, web-based research and websites, and the option to choose a research topic of your interest.

Finding-Research-Successful-Paper_GravesVye-5-1

You will be doing research and uploading it to your Google Doc. You will not need to read graded readers or listen to the news this term, but if you would like to read and borrow real graded reader books from the 4th floor library, here you are:

Physical graded readers are available in the 4F library

Over the summer, the 4th-floor Myogadani library added a new collection of physical graded readers for students.

• Oxford Bookworms: A collection of over 570 books, including roughly 140 at Stage 1, 190 at Stage 2, 120 at Stage 3, and 120 at Stage 4
• Other series: A small selection of readers from other publishers is also available.

As you know, extensive reading is a key part of the Spring semester IBIL Foundational course, Introduction to Communication and Research (ICR). While students have been using e-books from the Maruzen eBook Library, reading a physical book can be especially engaging. 

Please upload your homework to the shared Google Drive file by Friday at 1 pm, before Class 02.

Note: Please do not rely solely on Japanese language research and translation, as this does not support your English reading skills. While some research on law and Japan is acceptable, a more comprehensive approach would involve exploring studies in English through a variety of publications, rather than relying on a single source.

Please upload the pictures of your notes in your Shared Google file under the section “第 1 回 Cycle 3 sharing research notes 1: Basic Information.”

1. Your homework is due and has been uploaded to your Google doc on Friday at 1 pm. Please, research the SAME research issue using 2 Internet, book, newspaper, or journal articles about a topic you are passionate about discussing. The theme should be Basic Information about an environmental, global, legal, political, or social issue you are very interested in. Then take two pages of notes for each reading or viewing using the keywords on the pages. Remember to include the author’s name(s), date, and page or paragraph numbers in your notes. This will help you find your work and document it later. These actions will help you avoid copying and pasting when note-taking, instead summarizing in your own words or using quotation marks to highlight the authors’ exciting thoughts, data, and vocabulary. 

2. Typing the APA reference of your research: As best you can, please try to type the American Psychological Association (APA) formatted references typed in the document above your notes for Research Articles #1. You can download an APA quick guide below for your reference. This means when you put the reference and the URL link in your doc. You will never loose your readings and it is all in one place.

The details needed are:

Last name, initial. (20??). Title of the article. Publisher. https//:…..

Note-taking Sample on the Internet and Privacy Issues:

Shahbaz, A., & Funk, A. (2020). Freedom on the net 2020. Freedom House. 

https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/202010/10122020_FOTN2020_Complete_Report_FINAL.pdf 

Note-taking Sample on the Connections Between Child Labor and Poverty:

Congdon Fors, H. (2012). Social globalization and child labor. University of Gothenburg: Working Papers in Economics 533. https://core.ac.uk/reader/16333210

And here are the IRD links and docs for your homework below for your convenience:

Resources for students and teachers in Basic and Improving Research & Discussion

Learning About Global Issues

Note-taking on Age Discrimination

Note-taking on the Right to an Education

ICR Information Sheet

Using Zoom for sharing notes

Instructions for APA

A Very Quick Guide APA 7th

APA 7th Edition Quick Guide

Database Engines to collect research for your APA research: 

Zenbird Media: Topics & Issues: This website is suitable for researching issues related to your local community, or Japan in general, in the English language.

Carrot 2: Carrot helps you find topics related to your search term. After entering the term and clicking on ‘search,’ you can choose to view the results as a list, treemap, or pie chart, which helps you visualize your issue and narrow your search at the same time.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): DOAJ is a community-designed and maintained online journal directory that provides you access to robust, open-access, peer-reviewed journals. This search engine is independent and free, and it is indexed in DOAJ. Please use this engine for topical issues and authors, and you might find research that provides evidence for your academic essay. DOAJ is an educational outreach search engine that focuses on high-quality applications and submissions.

Google Scholar: Google Scholar helps you do a broad or narrow search of articles. It also helps you cite your “references” for APA and “work cited” for MLA!

CORE Research Engine UK: This research search engine claims to be the largest open-access research database in the world, giving free access to information that is very informative and easy to understand.

Learning About Global Issues–Specifically in relation to Chuo University Faculty of Law English courses. The team hopes that this website is helpful for students and other people in Japan (and in other countries) to develop our knowledge and critical understanding of different global issues.