1. So you need conduct proper research?
A crash course in research methods with Kelly Eckenrode
September

3. Do you believe me?

4. Do you believe me?
Where and what was my citation here? I didn’t
provide it.
2011

5. How do I know who to believe?
Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, Forms A/B (WGCTA). Copyright © 2007 NCS Pearson, Inc. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. “Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal” is a trademark, in the US and/or other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates(s)

6. Understand your sources
Sources are not only in written form. Sources can be artifacts, documents, a recording, an interview..

7. Understand your sources
Primary sources are original publications of first encounter knowledge.
Secondary sources are works that analyze and discuss primary sources.
Tertiary sources are indexes of primary and secondary sources.

8. Understand your sources
Primary sources are original publications of first encounter knowledge.
Secondary sources are works that analyze and discuss primary sources.
Tertiary sources are indexes of primary and secondary sources.
Examples: Research articles, manuscript, autobiography, diary, legal charters
Examples: Biography, editorials, history books
Examples: dictionaries, encyclopedia. Can NOT use for academic research

9. What is the primary source? What is the secondary course?

10. What is the primary source?
The JAMA Internal Medicine Journal
What is the secondary course?
Camila’s Domonoske’s article

11. Transition squirrel!

12. Stanford d. School bootcamp, http://cultureofempathy.com, 2015
Designing a meaningful body of research
Stanford d. School bootcamp,

14. Make an annotated bibliography to help you understand your research topic!

15. Wait--what is an annotated bibliography?
Make an annotated bibliography to help you understand your research topic!
Wait--what is an annotated bibliography?

16. Example of MLA style annotations
2011

17. Example of MLA style annotations
1. A brief thesis statement or descriptive title
2. A citation
3. An analytical insightful summary
2011

18. Writing the annotation: some prompts to get you started
Analyzing the argument
What does the author want you to believe? What (or who) does the author seem to be responding to?
What is the author’s main claim? What reasons and evidence support that claim? Can you determine the author’s methodology? Is there a theoretical approach underpinning their argument?
What type of evidence is used in the article (statistics, field research, quotes)? What kind of visual information is used — charts, graphs, photographs, etc.
Does the visual evidence add or detract to the argument?
Does the author’s evidence support the claim? Does the conclusion make sense given the progression of the argument?
Glance at the bibliography: what kinds of sources does your source use? (This is an excellent way to get an introduction/layout of a topic and its research history!)

19. Writing the annotation: some prompts to get you started
Analyzing the source’s source: the author and the publisher
Who is the author? Are they well-known in their field? Have they published on this topic before?
If this is an article: it should be clear to your reader if the article comes from a newspaper or magazine or peer-reviewed journal; if necessary, look up the editorial guidelines for the newspaper/magazine/journal — usually found at the publisher’s website. This all helps you determine the context of your source and how the article’s argument and information fits in with the overall editorial philosophy of the source.
Similarly, If the source is a book you may want to indicate if this book is a mainstream or academic publisher, any editorial guidelines or philosophy, or if the book is part of an ongoing series.

20. Where do I find reliable resources? Choose an academic database!
Google Scholar (universal access to peer-reviewed academic journals, books, theses, etc)
PubMed (mostly for medicine, public health, clinical research and basic science research)
Scopus (active archive of science academic publications)
JSTOR (archive of scholarly journals of art, business, music, ecology, math, literature, etc)
EBESCO (private e-resource system for ebooks, databases, some journals and magazines)
ProQuest (library collection management system at Brooklyn College)
Brooklyn College Library (

21. How do I organize all these citations and papers?

22. How do I organize all these citations and papers?
Find a citation manager!
EndNote (free trial for 30 days, or purchase)
Mendeley (free reference manager. Makes citations for you)
Zotero (free reference manager. Also makes citations for you)
RefWorks (free thru Brooklyn College with BC address)
Excel (don’t do this)

23. Kelly, this is great--but do people actually use these things?

24. Kelly, this is great--but do people actually use these things?

25. Now it is your turn...
Identify whether each article is a primary, secondary or tertiary source.
2. Write a descriptive title for connecting these two articles together.
3. Summarize the source. What were the main arguments? What is the point?
4. Assess the source. Is it a useful source? Is it reliable?
5. Reflect the source. Would this be a useful resource for a paper? How would is shape the paper?