Finding a Journal by the Name of the Source

In many cases, you want to conduct research and find sources, regardless of the journal name. However, there are cases where you only seek to research a specific journal; alternatively, you might want to make sure that the database you use will include results from a specific journal. These instruction assume that you already logged in to Southern Connecticut State University as a registered student or employee.

Purpose: Find a database that subscribes to a specific research journal for research in that specific journal.

Locate the four tabs at the center of the screen. Each tab searches a different set of resources. Click the Find a Journal tab.
Type the name of the journal in the field. Press the Search button. NOTE: In the example pictured to the right, the newspaper "New York Times" is written. This will be the journal result presented in all the pictures.
A list of search results will appear. Locate the specific search result you expected. Click the online database icon (a laptop image). In cases where there is no Online icon available, you will need to use the other icons for Print or Interlibrary Loan to access your source.
The library pays for access to many databases. Databases have licenses for specific journals. Use the date ranges on the right to choose the database that you need. If you want results for the current year, you should select the database that licenses the "Current" year. Click on the link to the left. In this case, the link is titled New York Times.
The database you selected will open to a specialized page that features the journal you specified. All databases have different methods of navigation and different interface features. Most databases will provide the ability to search within the publication you have specified, as opposed to the database's entire licensed collection. Interfaces vary but you should type your search terms into a search field. Click Submit to review articles.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Save a Duplicate Word File in OneDrive

While shared documents are designed to track changes and designed to facilitate dozens of editors, it is worth making sure the original copy is readily available. These instructions help you open the original copy and save your own version of the document in the same shared folder.

Purpose: Save As your own version of the document in the same shared folder.

Log in to your Microsoft office account. Click on the grid icon in the upper left corner of the Office browser screen. Click on the OneDrive link from the drop down menu.
Before you select the file you need, you may need to search through your files first. Review the list of folders in your OneDrive storage. Click on the folder you need. Your folder will be titled differently than this example. This example features "316_fall19_studentwork" as the folder.
Review the list of files in your OneDrive storage. Click on the file you need. Your folder will be titled differently than this example. This example features "316_fall19_studentwork" as the folder.
IMPORTANT: Do not alter the original document. Once the file opens, click on the File option from the menu bar.
The interface will change so that there are many File options. Select Save As from the blue column of options. Once you click on Save As, the save options will display. Click on Save As from the new set of options.
A dialogue window will open, with the name of the original file already highlighted.
Use appropriate naming conventions to rename the file as your own copy. Click the Save button at the bottom of the dialogue window.
You will see your own copy of the file listed along with the original in the shared folder.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Check on Feedback for a Blackboard assignment

After you complete an assignment on Blackboard, you may wish to see any details that your professor has set as "visible." The visibility of assignment details is at the discretion of your professor and you must take that up with him or her. While visibility and the kinds of assignments differ greatly, the following procedure is roughly what you will want to follow.

Purpose: Review answers to an assignment and read any of the instructor's feedback.

Click on the triangle next to your name on the top menu. In this example, the student name is greyed out. A dropdown menu will open. Click on the My Grades icon.
Scroll through the assignment selections to find the assignment you wish to review. The selection will show a highlight as the mouse hovers over it. However, the mouse icon will likely stay an arrow, rather than a finger for a hyperlink.  Regardless of the icon you see, click the selected box anyway.
You will see some data about the selected assignment. Search the screen for the score you earned on the bottom right. If you do not have a score, that means the assignment is not graded and you will not be able to view it. Click on the score to access the assignment details and feedback.
You will see the assignment details. These details are dependent on the information your professor wants you to see, after the submission of an assignment. In this example, the question, submitted answer, and feedback are selected as "visible" by the professor.
Depending on the size of the assignment detail, you may need to scroll down the screen to see the feedback.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Creating Surveys with Office

There are occasions where additional primary research is required for a project. While professional researchers must comply with a formal review process for approving research that involves human subjects, a student who wants to add some survey results to a class paper shouldn't have any problems. These instructions are for individuals with access to Microsoft Office 365 and the Office app Forms.

Purpose: Create a survey using the Microsoft Office 365 Forms app.

There are two ways to start. The first is to access Forms from the MYSCSU screen.
The second way to access Forms is from the dropdown app menu available on the top left corner of the browser screen, in most Office 365 apps.
On the forms page, there are very few options. Make sure the My forms tab is selected. Select New Form. Do not select New Quiz because that will not allow you to create a survey.
The new form has a place for a title and a button for adding new questions. Click on the title field to customize the title. Enter a description is an optional field. Click Add new to add the first question to the survey.
Any of the four kinds of survey questions are good options for a class survey. Choice lets you create multiple answers from which a survey subject can choose. Text lets you create an open field in which a survey subject can write their own answer. Rating is a way for you to propose a situation, product, or opinion that you want survey subjects to evaluate. Date is for questions to which the answer is a preferred date. This survey might even be a way to collaborate on schedules when planning meetings.
For the purposes of these instructions, I selected the Choice option. Enter the question in the question field. Each question automatically comes with two default answer fields:  Option 1 and Option 2.  Write your own words to replace the text "Option 1" or "Option 2." Click Add option to add over three options. In the picture, I created four optional answers.
Forms will always automatically save the form. You can identify the status of the saved form. Below the top menu bar, in the top right of the screen is a status update. The status of my example reads "Saved."
Optionally, you can click on the Theme tab to select from among preset themes.
To complete your survey, you need to distribute the survey to friends or student peers. Click on the Share tab. The Copy option is the default selection. Use the Copy button to copy the URL address of the survey. There are other options for distribution. Past the URL into the method you are using for distribution (i.e. Blackboard discussion post, etc.).
After friends and peers have answered the questions, Forms gives a real-time analysis of the answers. Open the survey. Click ont he Responses tab. Review the pie charts that represent the analysis of the answers. These instructions can help you post a link to Blackboard. Note: My example only has one subject so there is only one result. However, the pie chart will become more dynamic when more subjects respond to the survey.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Signature line

explaintheneed

Purpose: wordswordswords

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Salt Lake Community College

Finding a Shared File in OneDrive

A person can share both files and folders in the same way; these instructions will picture a shared folder. Often, in my classes, I will share a OneDrive folder with the entire class. Students need to find the shared folder before they can use it. However, once they find the folder, they can save any file they want to the folder and the entire class can access the file. Therefore, if the class is sharing a Microsoft Word document, the entire class can edit that document together.

Purpose: These instructions will help people find a shared file in their OneDrive. 

Once a file or folder has been shared with you by the owner, you will receive an email. In this example, Karen Lawrence shares a folder called "shared_classfolder" with my email account. Open your Outlook email program or browser. Locate the respective email. Click on the file or folder to open it. Alternatively, click on the Open button. You can continue to open the folder from this email.
A second method to open a file or folder. Open OneDrive in your browser. Look for the Shared option in the left navigation bar. This link will open a list of all files and folders that are shared with you. Pictured in this example, the "shared_classfolder" folder and "presentation" PowerPoint slide deck are shared with me. Click on the "shared_classfolder" link.
The interface for a file depends on the file. For instance, the "presentation.pptx" file in the picture above will open in Microsoft PowerPoint. Whereas, the following image shows the interface for a OneDrive folder. Click on the New menu to create a new document in the folder. Click on Word document to create a Microsoft Word document. Your computer will automatically enerate a Word document webpage and you will see the Microsoft Word interface.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University