Assignment 3

The purpose of this exercise is not only reading a little about a particular subject, but also facilitating electronic search skills, exposure to online research resources, group communication and developing collaboration techniques with others. You will form a team of 4-5 individuals for this assignment where you will be asked to:

1) Pick a timely Human Resource (employee or personnel) topic (such as gender bias, discrimination, salary levels, cyber loafing, sexual harassment, etc.);

2) Find “quotables” about your topic from on-line resources—see below for details on what a “quotable” is.

3) Produce a memo with an introductory paragraph explaining your topic and a list of quotables with proper citations and references.

QuotablesTeam Project. You will form a team of five for this assignment conducted both in and out of class. 1)
Pick a timely Human Resource (HR) topic. 2) Find “quotables” about it from on-line resources. 3) Produce a
memo of quotables with proper citations and references. The purpose of this exercise is not only reading a little
about a particular HR subject, but also facilitating electronic search skills, exposure to online resources, group
communication and developing collaboration/coorientation techniques with others.
Go to the TULibrary link on the TUPortal. Click on“Databases,” then “Find Database”. Select “Business
Source Complete” and/or other relevant databases, including “Academic Search Complete” or
“PsycINFO”. Look for journal articles on your topic by using a word or word phrase-based search.
Choose your words carefully and try different word combinations to find the best articles. These search
engines bring up both academic (research) and practitioner (applied) journals.
You should also do an internet search using search engines like Google. Simply type in “key word(s)” in
various combinations. Various sites will be listed that you can examine looking for statements worth
quoting. Share information and talk with fellow group members via email to coordinate your individual
efforts. NO COMMERCIAL WEBSITES (where people are selling a product on-line) are acceptable
sources for this assignment.
What you submit as a group
1. Write an introductory paragraph explaining the basics of your subject. Then provide bulleted
“quotables” (6 per person) about your topic, e.g., startling statistics, useful quotes, etc. With each
quote, you must provide an abbreviated source reference (e.g., Jones, 1997, p. 23). This is not the
full citation you give in the end bibliography, but an “in text” citation you would provide within the
paragraph of say, a research report. This typically includes authors’ last name(s), separated by
commas, the publication year, and the exact page number of the quote if there is a hard copy
equivalent. (This requires you to check pdf versions of online journals—to find the page numbers.)
Use the APA guidelines handout for examples on how to properly cite each type of reference–both
the abbreviated, in-text citation, and the full citation in the bibliography. Another great online
resource Temple’s writing center resource, especially http://www.temple.edu/writingctr/support-forwriters/documents/APA_Guide_Revised.pdf
2. “Quotables” are equivalent to one or two sentences you might find as a quote in a prominent
newspaper article or as a ten second sound bite (i.e., interview clip) on TV or the radio. It should be
some interesting fact or opinion that you have found from your search of relevant materials. You do
not have to read the articles you cite. However, you need to skim them looking for a good “quotable”
or two. Quotables can come from articles and websites, (but not websites specifically advertising and
selling something). No more than two quotes may be used from a single source.
3. Provide an end bibliography/references page with complete citations for each quote included in your
group paper. This is an alphabetized list of complete references from all your journal articles as well
as on-line sources other than journals, including websites, discussion pages, etc. IMPORTANT: All
in-text and end reference formatting must be consistent and in APA Style.