Politics Information Literacy Assessment, Form #11.2, Part A

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Course: POL

Date: 11/22/09 07:42:33

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This assessment is designed to measure your skills in accessing, evaluating, and presenting political information. The goal is to compare the skills of those soon to be graduated with those beginning their undergraduate careers. This assessment has no influence on your grade in any course, and your score will be kept confidential.

This assessment must be completed in 30 minutes.
If you are stumped by a question, skip it. You can return to skipped questions later if time permits.

***You CANNOT use the Internet and/or library sources to answer these questions***
  1. A bibliography is
    1. A book about a person’s life
    2. A list of references or citations
    3. An analysis of a literary work
    4. A directory of names


  2. Which search strategy would retrieve the most records when searching a database?
    1. election AND campaign
    2. election OR campaign
    3. election NOT campaign
    4. "election campaign"


  3. Imagine you are searching a database for articles about politicians’ campaign tactics. Choose the best search strategy:
    1. politicians AND campaigns
    2. “politicians’ campaign tactics”
    3. politicians AND campaigns OR tactics
    4. politic* AND (campaign* OR election*) AND (strategies OR tactics)


  4. What is the best search strategy to find a book about Condoleezza Rice?
    1. Subject search: “Rice, Condoleezza”
    2. Title search: “Condoleezza Rice”
    3. Author search: “Rice, Condoleezza”
    4. Keyword search: “Condoleezza Rice”


  5. Which of the following is not an effective strategy for constructing a database search?
    1. Brainstorm a list of synonyms and related terms for your keywords
    2. List abbreviations and alternative spellings of words
    3. Type a question in the database search field (e.g., “What is public policy?”)
    4. Brainstorm for broader and narrower terms


  6. A keyword search locates articles in a database by searching:
    1. In the subject field only
    2. In the title field only
    3. In the abstract field only
    4. In the subject, title, and abstract fields


  7. Subject searching has all the following characteristics, except:
    1. Searches in the subject, title, and abstract fields
    2. Uses controlled vocabulary (word/phrase used consistently to describe a subject)
    3. Finds related sources that do not necessarily share the same keywords
    4. Searches in the subject field only

Hall, M. G. (2001). State supreme courts in American democracy: Probing the myths of judicial reform. American Political Science Review, 95(2), 315-331.

  1. If you had this citation for an article, how would you search the Cole Library Catalog to see if the print version of the article is available in the library?
    1. By the article title: “State Supreme Courts in American Democracy: Probing the Myths of Judicial Reform”
    2. By the journal title: “American Political Science Review”
    3. By the author: “Hall, M. G.”
    4. By the keywords: “state” AND “Supreme Courts” AND “judicial reform”


  2. The best place to search for a library book on a specific topic is:
    1. A web search engine (e.g., Google, Yahoo)
    2. A library catalog (e.g., Cole Library Catalog)
    3. A library-subscribed database (e.g., EBSCOhost databases, LexisNexis)
    4. An encyclopedia (e.g., Britannica, World Book)


  3. You have been assigned to write a public policy paper using scholarly articles. Which source would be the most appropriate for finding the articles?
    1. A web search engine (e.g., Google, Yahoo)
    2. A library catalog (e.g., Cole Library Catalog)
    3. A library-subscribed database (e.g., EBSCOhost databases, LexisNexis)
    4. An encyclopedia (e.g., Britannica, World Book)


  4. LexisNexis contains online full-text access to all of the following, except:
    1. Political science journals
    2. Law reviews
    3. Newspapers
    4. Public laws and court cases


  5. Which statement about the EBSCOhost databases is false?
    1. They allow you to search for articles by subject or keyword
    2. They limit your search to one database at a time
    3. They include items owned by Cole Library
    4. They always provide article citations and may also include abstracts or full-text articles


  6. Which of these tools does not index journal articles?
    1. LexisNexis
    2. Cole Library Catalog
    3. EBSCOhost databases
    4. PAIS


  7. Which is the best database to search for law review articles?
    1. Academic Search Premier (in EBSCOhost)
    2. ERIC (in EBSCOhost)
    3. LexisNexis
    4. PsycINFO (in EBSCOhost)


  8. Which is the best tool for finding the full text of newspaper articles online?
    1. Cole Library Catalog
    2. PAIS
    3. LexisNexis
    4. Project Muse


  9. Which is the best tool for finding the full text of U.S. Statutes and Codes online?
    1. A web search engine (e.g. Google, Yahoo)
    2. Cole Library Catalog
    3. PAIS
    4. LexisNexis


  10. Which is the best tool for finding U.S. Government Documents?
    1. Academic Search Premier (in EBSCOhost)
    2. PAIS
    3. Project Muse
    4. GPO Monthly Catalog


  11. What type of information is found at http://thomas.loc.gov/?
    1. Information about the life and times of Thomas Jefferson
    2. Information about the legislative work of Congress
    3. Information about the judicial work of the U.S. Supreme Court
    4. Information about presidents and presidential decision making


  12. If you were writing a paper on the political economy of a developing country, which of these materials would be considered a primary source?
    1. A textbook
    2. A journal article that provides review of the literature to date on the topic
    3. A newspaper editorial
    4. Gross domestic product statistics


  13. Which of the following is generally not true of scholarly articles:
    1. They include a bibliography and source citations
    2. They discuss in detail the methodologies from which conclusions were drawn
    3. They are written for general audiences or include graphics to enhance attractiveness
    4. They report findings of original research or are peer-reviewed prior to publication


  14. Select the reference that is correctly formatted in the APA citation style.
    1. Muñoz, Vincent P. “James Madison’s Principle of Religious Liberty.” American Political Science Review 97.1 (2003): 17-33.
    2. Muñoz, Vincent Phillip. American Political Science Review. “James Madison’s Principle of Religious Liberty.” (2003): 97(1), 17-33.
    3. “James Madison’s Principle of Religious Liberty.” American Political Science Review. Muñoz, Vincent Phillip. (2003). 97(1), 17-33.
    4. Muñoz, V. P. (2003). James Madison’s principle of religious liberty. American Political Science Review, 97(1), 17-33.


  15. Select the reference that is correctly formatted in the MLA citation style.
    1. Muñoz, Vincent P. “James Madison’s Principle of Religious Liberty.” American Political Science Review 97.1 (2003): 17-33.
    2. Muñoz, Vincent Phillip. American Political Science Review. “James Madison’s Principle of Religious Liberty.” (2003): 97(1), 17-33.
    3. “James Madison’s Principle of Religious Liberty.” American Political Science Review. Muñoz, Vincent Phillip. (2003). 97(1), 17-33.
    4. Muñoz, V. P. (2003). James Madison’s principle of religious liberty. American Political Science Review, 97(1), 17-33.


  16. All of the following are good ways to avoid plagiarism, except:
    1. Cite the sources used in the paper
    2. Take accurate notes about where you found specific ideas
    3. Paraphrase the idea in your working notes rather than directly copying the words
    4. Use quotation marks or block quotes to denote exact quotations

“Every law constitutes a social policy decision made in the ordinary political process; every ruling of unconstitutionality constitutes a rejection of that policy choice and the substitution of a different policy choice by judges” (Graglia, 2001, p. 1013).

  1. Which of the following choices is an acceptable (i.e., plagiarism-free) paraphrase of this quotation?
    1. Every law represents a social policy decision made in the regular political process; every ruling of unconstitutionality symbolizes a rejection of that policy choice and the replacement of a different policy choice by judges.
    2. Graglia (2001) takes issue with judges’ influence over social policy-making, arguing that, when they declare laws to be unconstitutional, they effectively negate the policy decisions made through the normal legislative channels.
    3. Every law represents a social policy decision made in the regular political process; every ruling of unconstitutionality symbolizes a rejection of that policy choice and the replacement of a different policy choice by judges (Graglia, 2001).
    4. Graglia (2001) argues that every law constitutes a social policy decision made in the ordinary political process; every ruling of unconstitutionality constitutes a rejection of that policy choice and the substitution of a different policy choice by judges.

Click the Submit button below upon completing Part A, then proceed to Part B from the main page.