FYS 120R: Relationships in Young Adulthood

Welcome to the Library Subject Guide for FYS: Relationships in Young Adulthood! It includes information and resources designed to aid you in locating research and managing sources for your assignments this semester.

For research questions:

• Email me at schaez1@stolaf.edu or schedule a research consultation if you have any questions!

For writing help:

• Make an appointment with the Writing Desk for assistance with organizing ideas and improving your writing style.

Slide 1: FYS 120: Relationships in Young Adulthood Library Session

Slide 2: 

Ann Schaenzer
Research & Instruction Librarian for Social Sciences and Data Literacy
schaez1@stolaf.edu
[Image: photo of Ann Schaenzer.]

Slide 3:

[Image: photo of Ann in a shark costume with other colleagues from Library & IT at the Safety Carnival in Fall 2025.]

Slide 4: Group Discussion and Research Presentation

• Purpose: Students will gain skills in working together as a group to research a topic, design a presentation and lead the class in a discussion. They will learn to access library resources.
• Description: In an assigned group you will research an aspect of our class topic for the day and lead a slide presentation for at least 25-30 minutes. You will also lead the class in a discussion about your topic using 5 discussion questions and an activity. Presentations will be based on scholarly sources found in a library search. You will turn in your slides and list of references, at least 4 references.
• Evaluation: A rubric will be provided as well as a peer evaluation for group work, professionalism, creativity, oral presentation skills and insight into the topic.

Slide 5: Our goals for today are…

• Brainstorm what you might focus on for your group presentation
• Discuss the differences between scholarly and popular articles
• Talk about evaluating sources
• Find out how to effectively use library resources
• How to get help from Ann outside of class
• Plenty of work time!

Slide 6: What is a popular article?

Sometimes called "popular" or general interest sources, journalists report on interviews and/or research done by others. Popular articles generally... 

• Are intended for a general readership 
• Include eye-catching images designed to draw in readers
• Share previously published research; may report on multiple studies and give background information
• Feature interviews or quotes from one or more people affected by or involved with the topic
• Written by journalists, columnists, magazine staff writers, or freelance writers
• Refer to published sources but rarely contain in-text citations or footnotes
• May include data or statistics but might not indicate how the data was collected or interpreted

[Images: covers of two popular sources: The Atlantic and Newsweek.]

Slide 7: What is a scholarly article?

Scholarly articles are articles in which researchers share findings from their original research in journals specific to their subject area. Scholarly articles generally...

• Intended for a specialist readership of researchers, academics, students, and professionals 
• Are written by specialists and researchers with expertise in the subject area
• Use a standard format with few or no ads or images
• Present researchers' findings and conclusions based on original research
• Have charts and graphs that show original data analysis conducted by the researchers
• Are peer-reviewed
• Has citations and references indicating an ongoing scholarly conversation on the topic
• Include a bibliography of sources

[Images: covers of two scholarly journals: Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy and Journal of GLBT Family Studies.]

Slide 8: Today’s Takeaways

• Brainstorming is an effective way to start thinking about your research
• Scholarly and popular articles are different types of sources, but each useful in their own ways
  • There are a number of different approaches to evaluating both
• Library databases are helpful research resources
• Ann is here to help via appointment and email!

Slide 9: Suggested work time activities

• Select a library database on the library research guide and see what kinds of scholarly articles you can find on your group’s topic by using the keywords you developed during the mind mapping activity. 
  • Are the articles relevant? Do you need to add some filters or try some synonyms? 
  • Write down your searches to remember what keywords you’ve used.
• Find a popular source through a library database or the open web
• Select one source from your results that is relevant to your topic and read the abstract/summary. After reading the abstract, does the source still seem relevant to your topic? If it is relevant, generate a citations for the source and add it to a spreadsheet, enter it into a Google Doc, email draft, etc.
• Add any additional useful references you found to the same doc!