1. Chapter 20 Asking Questions, Finding Sources

2. Characteristics of a Good Research Paper Poses an interesting question and significant problem Responds to the problem with a contestable thesis Sources should be used purposefully and ethically

3. An Effective Approach to Research Immerse yourself in alternative points of view, different values, various types of evidence Use critical thinking to take these elements and create your thesis Your sources should: Provide background information Supply supporting evidence Present alternate points of view

4. The Importance of Documentation In-text citations and a Works Cited page allow your reader to identify and locate your sources for themselves Documentation makes you a credible writer by creating ethos Through documentation, you develop the answer to your research question by relying on your sources You can relate to others who have asked the same question by researching their sources

5. Topic Focus vs. Question Focus Topic Focus: invites you to collect information without a clear purpose Data dumping Question Focus: encourages active construction of meaning. As a writer, you must assess and weigh data and understand multiple points of view See page 510 for examples In your groups, create a topic focus followed by a question focus

6. Formulating a Research Question See charts on pages 5-6 and 35-36. Initial research question will evolve as you do research, it may become broader or more focused Questions to ask: Are you personally interested in this question? Is the question problematic and/or significant? Is the question limited enough for the intended length of your paper? Is there a reasonable possibility of finding information based on time and resources? Is the question appropriate for your level of expertise?

7. Primary & Secondary Sources Primary: Original documents, artifacts, or data that you actively analyze Secondary: Works by other people who have analyzed the same documents, artifacts, or data. These sources basically comment upon or analyze primary sources See example on page 514

8. Print vs Web Sources Print sources are stable, once written in their format they don’t change Books, journals, magazines, newspapers Print sources can be tracked by the reader and usually go through an editorial review process that make them accurate Web sources can change by the hour. They can be unreliable and unedited. Pay attention to whether a source retrieved electronically was originally a print source or if it is truly a web-only source See chart on pages 516-517

9. Strategies for Searching Libraries, Databases, and Web Sites Library Home Page Online catalog Direct links to periodicals and reference databases Academic Search Premier: access to abstracts, biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, journals, magazines Access to peer-reviewed material

10. Subject vs Keyword Search Subject search: predetermined categories If you search for “street people” you’ll be directed to info on “homeless people” Keyword search: computer will locate these words in title, abstracts, introductions, and bodies of texts. Very broad When searching for a phrase put it in quotes, otherwise the search engine will find your information in a variety of ways that will separate your search terms See table on page 521

11. Licensed Database Electronic databases index articles in thousands of periodicals and construct search engines by author, title, subject, keyword, date, genre, etc. Most databases contain an abstract of each article, and may also contain the entire article of which you can download and print When searching for these items through Google or other web engines, most sites will charge a fee to obtain the information Use the campus library to access these databases, it’s free! See page 523 on narrowing or expanding your searches on a licensed database

12. World Wide Web There are a variety of search engines available, but they only access information that is free to the public Google, Bing, Yahoo Google Scholar will search only academic or scholarly sources Noodletools.com: offers advice for choosing the best search engine The quality of sources can vary, so be sure to look for sites ending in:.gov.edu.org