EDL 522: Critically Evaluating Education Policy Research

This guide will link you to Library resources that will help you during your Educational Leadership EdD Program. 

• Use library search to find books, articles, and more
• View tips on accessing scholarly journals from off-campus (video)
• Troubleshoot access issues
• Find different types of materials
• Get articles and book chapters by email
• Borrow books and materials from other libraries
• Request a book by mail (if you live more than 30 miles from the University in the continental United States. Be sure to enter your mailing address and choose "Home delivery" as your pickup location before requesting materials.)

UA students can also check out print materials from ASU, NAU, and Pima Community College at no cost. Just bring a photo ID and proof of registration.

Look over  The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership: Advances in Theory, Research, and Practice and  review Chapter 5: Reviewing Educational Literature

Use Google Scholar to locate an article related to your research. If you are unsure how to start, review this tutorial on creating a search strategy.

Once you have located an article, analyze it using the guide below:

Learn how to paraphrase and integrate quotations and the research of others into your own writing.

Paraphrasing / Integrating

To start, read the information on paraphrasing contained in the links below.

• UA Writing Skills Improvement Program Tips For Paraphrasing
• APA Style Blog Paraphrasing

Next, print the activity sheet and use it to practice identifying correct paraphrases. 

APA in-text citations

• APA In-Text Citations: The Basics - From Purdue OWL

Citation Guides

• OWL APA guide (Purdue University)
• APA quick citation guide (Penn State University)

Citation Generator (this is an excellent resource for quickly creating a works cited page)

• Zotero Bib (Fast, free works cited creator)

Citation Managers (Choose one of these to track, annotate and organize your sources across your coursework and in preparation for your comprehensive exams)

• Citation Management Tools

Use these tips and techniques to check your work and avoid unintentional plagiarism. 

Google and Google Scholar
Google can be a simple, free, initial step in plagiarism detection.
To run a quick check, paste a sample of the passage that you are working with into Google’s search box. If there is a match with website content, a link to the source will be provided. To detect plagiarism from scholarly works, enter the samples of passages that you'd like to check into Google Scholar, which links to many scholarly databases. (adapted from BU Center for Teaching and Learning)  

The University of Arizona Writing Skills Improvement Program
The Writing Skills Improvement Program (WSIP) was established over 30 years ago in order to help students at the University of Arizona improve their writing skills and achieve academic success.  Workshops, writing groups, tutoring and editing services are available through this program.