Download - Writing and research
By
Daniel Gonzalez
Noel Feliciano
Alberto Roman
Keyshla Rosario
Juan Diego Rojas
Adam Rivera
Writing and Research
1. NO quality control.
2. NOT organized.
3. Sources are harder to identify.
4. It doesn't have trained professional librarians ready to assist you in your search.
http://www.tnstate.edu/library/publicservices/library_vs_internet.aspx
Convenience on the internet
Does we really need to pick a side?
Internet vs. Library
chronology [krəˈnɒlədʒɪ]
n pl -gies
1. the determination of the proper sequence of past events
2. the arrangement of dates, events, etc., in order of occurrence
3. a table or list of events arranged in order of occurrence
chronologist n.
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 199.8, 2000, 2003
Chronology:
MORE IS MORE!
It’s not less.
1. Enough information.
2. Varied sources.
3. Verify the quality of the information.
(quality info. Is that which the legitimacy can be measured and which fits the research parameters)
What to look for.
For best results and time efficiency. (mostly in the library)
Controlling the Language.
1. Specifying and adding more detail.
2. String of terms.
3. Exact phrases.
To generate more relevant hits.
For the Web:
1. Library of congress subject headings (LCSH):
Index terms ( 4 vol. book “Red Book” or http://authorities.loc.gov/)
2. Library of Congress (LOC): Keywords and relevant LOC terms that come up in the results.
The library.
3. Boolean Connectors: AND, OR and NOT.
(places like, Internet Public Library, http://ipl.org)
Christmas AND Special NOT the Grinch.
Library And Web
George BooleBorn 2 November 1815
Died 8 December 1864
Lincoln, Lincolnshire,
England
Searching for information over the Internet
Authoritative Sources
Primary vs. Secondary sourcePrimary source Secondary source
Objective subject Subjective Subject
Objective subject vs. Subjective Subject
Journal vs. Magazine articles
Not all books are alike
Always keep your purpose in mind.
Favor governmental and educational sources over commercial ones.
Favor authored documents over those without authors.
Evaluating online sources
Favor web pages that have been recently updated.
Favor web sources that document their claims.
Evaluating online sources (cont.)
If it DOES have an author:
•Peer reviewed? Yes/No
•Government? Yes/No
•Educational organization? School or nonprofit? Yes/No
•Author provides credentials? Find them? Yes/No
•Author published elsewhere? Yes/No
Basic Info. Reliability
If it DOESN’T have an author:
Government or educational group? Yes/No
Peer reviewed journal or e-zine? Yes/No
Nonprofit with education mission? Yes/No
Special interest but still useful? Yes/No
Content reasonable? Yes/No
Basic Info. Reliability
Working Knowledge equips you
to sustain a 1 minute dinner
conversation on your topic.
Focused knowledge is enough
for you to make a 15-20 minutes
presentation to the class.
Difference Between Working Knowledge & Focused Knowledge
What is Focused Knowledge?
Should I use this article? Is it
useful for my paper?
• Consider the following
for your thesis:
• Are you suspending
judgments?
• Are you testing
Assumptions?
• What are you arguing?
Thesis
Is one of the unifying aspects
of a paper. It summarizes the
main point of the paper and
points toward it’s
development.
You are going to collect a lot
of material on your
research. It will be a lot
easier for you if you record
what you find.
Bibliography
Bibliography: Basic Style
Bibliography: Working Style
Bibliography: Evaluative
The campus library remains as your most important source of information.
Finding sources is relatively easy.
SEARCHING LIBRARY DATABASES FOR BOOKS AND ARTICLES
There are two systemas for classifying books: The Dewey Decimal and the Library of Congress System.
You are most familiar with the Library of Congress system.
Its likely that you won’t find any books by either searching physically or using the online catalog directly.
FINDING BOOKS
Most college libraries have a wonderful low- or no- cost service to students called interlibrary loan.
CHECKING BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Databases provide a way to search for articles on particular subjects in magazines or journals.
There are two kinds of article databases: general subject databases and specialized databases.
Article databases
General subject databases are multidisciplinary and you can search for popular magazines, newspaper and some scholarly journals.
General subject databases
This databases are subject specific that will let you find many more relevant scholarly article for you research question.
Specialized databases
When searching for information on the Internet you have to be efficient and know how to get fewer, more focused and better-quality results.
The most popular search engine is Google but its important to always ir other search engines like Yahoo!, Bing, Ask and others to get different results.
Advance internet research technique
There are also metasearch tools that you can use to search various search engines at the same time. The disadvantage is that the metasearch skims off the top results and you wont get of the other related topics.
Advance internet research technique
Finally there are specialized search engines or vertical search engines in which you can search for specific subject such as education, politics psychology and others.
Advance internet research technique