Course readings
In all your courses at RRU, you will have course readings. Although you may have an assigned textbook, most of your readings will be available online. Your instructors work with the Library to source these readings, and the Library subscribes to many of them on your behalf. When you click those links, you'll often be directed to a log-in page. The username and password to access all Library resources is the same as your Moodle username and password. If you ever have difficulty accessing your course readings, you can ask the Library for help.
Your own readings
A common misconception students arrive with is that the provided course readings are the only resources they will be expected to read or rely on in their course work. In every RRU program, you will also be expected to conduct your own literature searching and find your own readings, which may be related to a topic in class or your own research interests.
Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay
You're probably used to using Google or another search engine to for information during your regular life. The expectations are different in an academic environment. You'll likely be expected to deal mostly with academic books and articles, but depending on your program and your area of focus you may need other kinds of information as well.
For example, depending on your topic, you might need information from
The Library can help you find any kind of information, whether or not it's academic.
Here's a quick overview of some types of information you might need to look for, and how we can help:
This will likely form the bulk of the resources you're asked to find in your program. The Library subscribes to a ton of peer-reviewed journals on your behalf, and there are also increasingly many open-access peer-reviewed journals that anybody can read (with or without a Library subscription). We can help you find both! Learn more about peer review in the video below.
Depending on your program, you may be asked to do research on a particular industry or market segment (for example, to understand the economic outlook for a particular country or a particular business area over the next 5-10 years). Market and industry information can be difficult to find on the open web because it often belongs to private companies. RRU Library subscribes to several industry-specific databases on your behalf. We can help you find industry reports, customer segmentation analysis, financial information for a company, and more. This guide provides a good place to get started: Market and industry research.
Governments at all levels produce reports, policy documents, and statistics/data that may be relevant to your studies. Other groups, such as NGO and research institutes, may also produce documents of interest. These types of resources, known as "grey literature", are typically freely available online, but they can be difficult to find. RRU librarians have tips and tricks that can help you track down this kind of information. Ask us!
Different kinds of English
There are many varieties of spoken and written English (sometimes called World Englishes), and all forms of English are valid. Writers may choose different words, sentence structures, or patterns of storytelling depending on the content of their story and the audience they want to reach. When you're writing for your courses at RRU, you may find it helpful to think about the grammatical and structural conventions of North American Academic English, and how they might relate to your writing style and your instructors' expectations.
Expectations of academic English
Academic audiences generally expect that writers will follow the grammatical conventions of academic English. These conventions include using complete sentences, following agreed-upon rules for punctuation and spelling, and keeping verb tenses consistent and appropriate to the action being described. No one form of English can be considered “standard” or “correct,” however, and writers may apply the conventions of academic English differently depending on the form(s) of English they use. Some common variations include word choice (e.g., prepositions), spelling (e.g., British, American, Canadian), and style (e.g., passive versus active sentence structure; circular or linear patterns of argument or storytelling). To learn more about the conventions of North American Academic English, please visit our guides on Parts of Speech, Punctuation and Capitalization, Sentences and Style, and Spelling and Vocabulary.
Students whose academic writing will be graded can sometimes experience a tension between their preferred style of writing and the conventions an instructor may expect them to follow. If you are unsure how the conventions of your written English will mesh with your instructor’s expectations, please talk with your instructor before submitting your assignment. Once you have had that conversation, please feel welcome to schedule an appointment with the Writing Centre. We would be happy to talk with you about developing your writing style, as well as any questions you have about writing in North American Academic English!
Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay
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