Business Research Roundups are short assignments designed to get you using the academic research tools you will need for your COMM 1011 written Assignment #4 and in other Commerce courses. Check here for frequently asked questions about Research Roundup Assignments 1, 2 and 3.
If you do not see your question listed and answered, please send your questions to Librarian Laura Landon or your teaching assistants for COMM 1011.
Q: Should I include a sentence before my in-text citation examples, to show how they would actually look in a paper?
A: No, you don't need to include any sentences before or after your parenthetical, in-text citation example. Just show how the parenthetical citation would look for each question, e.g., (Olayele, 2023).
Q: Moodle will accept only PDFs and the assignment asks us to submit a Word doc.
A: That's my fault! Please submit a PDF if you can't submit a Word document. I did not realize Moodle will not allow people to upload Word documents.
Q: I can't find the right Statista report.
A: Try typing only the keywords related to the report title into Statista: Electric vehicles worldwide digital trends. You should get several reports. Look for the 2025 reports, and click into them. One of them is the Digital & Trends report.
Longer explanation: Most databases and search engines like you to search using key words, not natural language. Example, if you are trying to answer the question "what are the trends about electric vehicles worldwide?" you would search the main words related to that question: trends electric vehicles and maybe the word worldwide or global. You would then filter for the newest articles or reports. (The date or year wouldn't normally be part of your initial query. Do your search first, then filter for the date you want.) Similarly, if you are looking for the latest digital and trends report on electric vehicles worldwide, search the key words of the report: electric vehicles worldwide.
Even longer info: In Google or Statista, when you search electric vehicles worldwide the search engine looks for the words electric AND vehicles AND worldwide. (In other databases and in Novanet, you need to use the Boolean search term AND in between the words you are searching. Use capital letters. The Advanced Search boxes in these databases help you by using the word AND to connect each search box. There are other cool Boolean operators you can use, too. Use NOT to exclude words, and OR to expand your search by looking for similar words.)
You will often need to try many different combinations of words when you are searching a topic. Vary them! If the database isn't giving you good material, try synonyms or new words that are related to the concept you are searching. Still no luck? Come see your librarian! We love searching.
COMM 1011 assignments require in-text citations when you refer to information you learned from the textbook, lectures, and other sources such as books, academic journal articles, and newspaper articles.
Commerce uses APA citation style.
Tip: Use citation generators within Novanet and databases, but always double check them because they often make mistakes.
Tip: Use APA's examples for how to format citations of books, journal articles, newspaper articles, websites, etc. found at the link below. (See "Textual Works" for journal and newspaper articles, even if they are online. See Online Media for websites and web pages.)
Tip: To cite class notes from Dr. Olayele's PowerPoint slides, follow the format listed on the APA website here: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/powerpoint-references#2
Tip: To see where and how to place in-text citations, and how to format a list of references at the end of your assignment, see Purdue OWL's sample APA paper.
