Assignment
Part 1-white papers
1. Of the various types of white papers the Purdue OWL lecture describes, how would you label this type of white paper? Why?
I would label this type of paper as an external white paper. This is because it is written to inform a public audience/external audience within a certain field. In particular, the paper targets IT organizations that want to move their operations to the cloud, and provides them with guidelines on what factors to consider before making the decision of using the cloud. It generally speaks about the use of cloud in IT organizations, and does not specify a certain company.
2. Who is the audience for this white paper?
As mentioned earlier, the paper targets an external audience, i.e., IT organizations
3. Comment on the level of formality of the writing in this white paper. Is it written in a formal style? Or an informal style? Or a bit of both?
This white paper combines formal and informal styles of writing. In some parts of the paper, the author uses a serious tone, facts and a third-person perspective. An example of a formal sentence as used in the paper is: “cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” The author also uses informal writing by taking a personal tone as if he were speaking directly to the reader. Examples of sentences that demonstrate this include “in this document, we will primarily focus on Infrastructure as a Service.” and “Below you will find some questions that you can ask yourself to assist in making an effective decision.”
Part 2-Tutorials
1. Using the strategies discussed in library video tutorial #1, search on some terms and find four articles on this topic. Your search can be quite broad at this stage. Try to use some search phrases that require that you use quotation marks, as the video demonstrates. Please write the topic on which you searched and the search terms you used to search on it.
The topic on which I searched is: Generation Z and their work or technology habits. The search terms used include: “Generation Z,” “technology habits,” and “work habits”
2. Again, using the strategies from library video tutorial #1, for the four articles you found, please write titles of the four articles and the journals in which they appeared.
Some of the articles I found include:
• 7 Differences Between Generation Z and Millennials As They Enter The Workforce: Employers will have to adjust to this new Generation Z (appeared in a business journal)
• Gen Z Crave a World Without Borders, Boundaries and Binaries (appeared in Women’s Wear Daily. 4/17/2019, p16-16. 1/2p.)
• Support Generation Z (appeared in the Marketing Week (Online Edition). 2/1/2016, p1-1. 1p.)
• Generations Y and Z (appeared in Gifts & Decorative Accessories. Jan2015, Vol. 116 Issue 1, p48-54. 4p.)
3. Using the strategies discussed in library video tutorial #2, conduct a new search on a phrase related to your major or to a workplace topic of interest to you. As the video demonstrates, make sure to use quotation marks around the phrase you search on.
-What phrase(s) did you search on?
I searched on the “phishing attacks” phrase
-How many search results do you get?
I got 30 search results
4. Then, applying the tips in library video tutorial #2, focus your search from question #2 by using the SU-subject terms option from the drop-down menu for one of the rows. ( Please use cybersecurity as the major of interest.
How many search results do you find after limiting the search by using SU-subject terms?
I got 718 search results
5. Finally, using the strategies mentioned in library video tutorial #3, locate the research guide for your major. If you have not declared a major yet, please select one that interests you from the options from the drop-down menu.
Peruse the research guide for that major.
Some of the research guides for cybersecurity can be obtained from the following databases: ACM digital library, Computer ScienceOnefile, IEEE Computer Society Digital Library etc.
Describe to the rest of the class in a few sentences any interesting resources you discovered.
I must confess that I really enjoyed the class; it was informative and very interesting. For instance, the OWL vidcast provided me with more insight on the topic of white papers. Through it, I was able to better understand what a white paper is, the different types of white papers, purposes of white papers, how they are formatted etc. I particularly enjoyed the part where I had to apply the knowledge I got from the vidcast by analyzing the sample white paper on “cloud consideration.” I loved answering the questions as they pertained to this sample. The various video tutorials also played an important role in adding to my knowledge base. Through them, I gained vital skills in article searching. Therefore, I now know how to search for articles that are relevant to my area of study. As I practiced my search I was able to discover an interesting resource on phishing attacks titled “Phish Muzzle: This Fish Won’t Bite.”
