Concept Briefing Survival guide Here are some hints to help you avoid the pitfal

Concept Briefing Survival guide
Here are some hints to help you avoid the pitfalls that typically beset Concept Briefing writers.
Never cite in an abstract.
Do not cut and paste parts of your abstract into your paper.
Your abstract should include the objectives of your paper.
The 750 – 1000 word limit is not a suggestion – it is a hard range – points off for exceeding or not meeting the requirements of the word count. The abstract and ref list do not count against this limit – they are extra beyond the 750-1000.
I have never had an A paper under 825 words. You cannot demonstrate mastery of the subject in 763 words.
The paper should be approached from a “How do I show what I know” perspective, rather than a “Do I have 750 words yet” perspective.
“Scholarly Sources” means peer reviewed. Generally this is is limited to journal articles and conference papers. Not all periodicals are journals, and not all journals are peer reviewed. Books, textbooks, websites, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. are not peer reviewed.
If you look at your paper and have trouble finding a square inch that does not have part of a citation you are over-citing. A concept briefing is not a literature review. The approach should be “Here is what I know and here is where I learned it” rather than “Look at what all these people said”. 5-10 citations is sufficient. Anything beyond that and you are probably rehashing another author’s work.
Do not be tempted by class material. Sometimes we see papers with three citations from scholarly sources and 11 citations of the class text book.
If you use the same source more than once you must cite it each time you use it. One citation does not constitute blanket coverage for additional uses of that material.
Be sure you are writing in the context of class. Most of the topics we give you are directly related to concepts in the IOP for example. If you are doing a paper on Call Numbers – how do they relate to the organization of information and its users? 923 words on how to create a call number based on Dewey does not relate the topic to class.
Be sure you are writing about the IS perspective on the topic. Many of the terms used in our discipline mean something completely different in other disciplines. Google is not necessarily your friend. For example, one topic is Collocation:
What we are looking for is the relationship of objects in a collection based on similarities of attributes, metadata, search terms, etc, and how to build a metadata structure that facilitates collocation.
Every semester I get at least one…
Collocation – the relationship and juxtapostion of nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns in a sentence and the relationship to grammar and syntax.
How does this happen? Students Google Collocation and work with the first couple links that come up regardless of their lack of application to information science.
Avoid wasted words. Examples:
According to so and so in her article “Dismaflachia standardization in Mergatroid demitalizations”…. 10 wasted words. If your paper is 805 words and you do this 10 times, your paper is really only about 700 words long and we will not count the wasted words.
According to so and so…. 2 wasted words – but we can live with this So and so (2019) – correct usage of in-text citations
Avoid repetition. For example, a paper has the following sentences:
A call number is a sequence of letters and numbers that allow a user to find things on the shelf.
Call numbers serve to guide users to the object on the shelf.
Once in the stacks, users use call numbers to find objects.
With a call number a user can easily find objects.
Books are easily found with a good call number system..
Without call numbers, objects would be harder to find.
A good call number scheme alleviates the need to help users find what they need on the shelves.
This would get a comment like “you have consumed ninety of your 839 words saying the same thing seven times. Your paper is really only about 740 words without the restatements. Any of your shorter statements given once would have sufficed”. And points would be taken off.
Examples should be exactly that… drill down of a concept you have discussed earlier in the paper. Examples should not introduce new topics or repeat what you have already said. Examples:
In the Definition and Purpose and Implications sections, you talk about your topic and discuss A,B,C,D,E and F.
For examples you discuss G, H, and I. This will cost you points.
Or
For examples, you repeat and maybe reword what you said about B, D and F. This will cost you points.
Or
Example 1 elaborates on B, Example 2 elaborates on E, and Example 3 is an example of a Library doing C. This is a good approach.
Or
Each example shows a different library’s approach to C, with significant differences between the examples. This is a good approach.
A conclusion is not a re-cap of what you have already said. That is a summary and is redundant for CB purposes. A conclusion is more like “what do YOU think about all this?” and/or “Where do you think this is going in the future?” and/or “what has the overall effect of this been on the profession?”