Research and Sources

1
Research and Sources

• Developing a workable system

2
What we know

• Different tools perform different tasks.
• ProQuest and EBSCOHost together search over 5,000
  subscription magazines, journals, and newspapers
  for full-text articles. They do not search for
  websites or for material that doesnt exist in
  print form.
• NewsBank finds full-text news articles from the
  Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New
  York Times, Washington Post, and the Eureka Times
  Standard.
• Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and other internet
  search engines search only publicly accessible
  areas of the internet and DO NOT make any
  distinctions about source types, source quality,
  or source relevance.
• CQ Researcher is a weekly publication providing
  original in-depth analysis of the most current
  major and controversial issues of the day with
  complete summaries, chronology of the issue, all
  the pros and cons, bibliographies, who to contact
  for more information, web resources, and more.
  Archives date back to 1991.

3
What we know

• Course web page
• Offers links to newspapers, magazines, and
  websites that represent both diverse regional and
  ideological perspectives.
• Offers links to reliable statistics, facts, and
  analysis
• opensecrets.com
• factcheck.org
• corpwatch.org
• fair.org

4
What we know

• Course web page
• Offers writing and research links
• Purdue OWL.
• Info on annotated bibliographies with examples.
• Info on evaluating online sources.
• Tips for reading critically.
• Info on MLA format.
• Links to classroom PowerPoint presentations like
  this one.

5
What we know

• We know various methods for evaluating the
  credibility of online sources and websites.
• We know that as intelligent, skeptical readers we
  hesitate to accept what someone says until we
  have good reasons to believe him/her.
• We know that a researcher cannot know all there
  is to know about a subject or even read all that
  has been written about it.
• We know that research is about inquiry, not just
  advocacy.
• We know that responsible researchers engage in
  investigation that leads to an informed judgment.
  Irresponsible researchers draw conclusions and
  then simply go looking for support for those
  conclusions.
• We know that responsible researchers seek out
  sources that represent different perspectives and
  interests.
• We know that the goal of research is to become
  informedi.e. to be able to speak intelligently
  to an educated audience about a subject and
  thoughtfully field their questions.

6
What we need

• A system for research
• Something that charts where weve been, what
  weve learned, what we need to know, what we
  especially want to remember, what we may want to
  use in our essays, what patterns we see, what
  questions we have, etc.

7
Assignment

• You have 30 minutes to work with 2-3 other
  students to develop a visual aid that helps you
  share with the rest of the class useful research
  strategies that members of your group use. Think
  specifically of illustrating how you do the
  following
• Annotate sources.
• Take notes.
• Save memorable quotes or important information.
• Record questions.
• Reflect on your ongoing research and findings.
• Keep track of sources and information.
• Keep on task (i.e. prevent yourself from loosing
  focus or getting overwhelmed)
• The idea here is to represent elements of a
  usable system for research. This means that your
  have to represent distinct strategies, not a
  cohesive system. You may, in fact, have more
  than one strategy for accomplishing a particular
  task. Use the note cards, pens, paper, tape,
  poster sheets I give you, along with the research
  sources for your third essay youve brought with
  you today. Well conclude with each group
  explaining the strategies theyve illustrated.