Research and Sources Developing a workable system

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 doesn’t 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.

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

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.

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 informed—i.e. to be able to speak intelligently to an educated audience about a subject and thoughtfully field their questions.

What we need A system for research: Something that charts where we’ve been, what we’ve 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.

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 you’ve brought with you today. We’ll conclude with each group explaining the strategies they’ve illustrated.