1. RES 500 A (Research Strategies)

2. Many Students Think Research is a Matter of Data Collection and Reporting: Data Synthesis Data Report

3. This is Not Research. Research Demands a Question. This is a Better Model: Data Synthesis Data InformationQuestion Conclusions Recommendations

4. Developing Questions from a Working Knowledge E.W. Kenyon:

5. Developing Questions from a Working Knowledge

6. Developing Questions from a Working Knowledge

7. Developing Questions from a Working Knowledge

8. Developing Questions from a Working Knowledge

9. Developing Questions from a Working Knowledge

10. Developing Questions from a Working Knowledge Developing Research Questions around E.W. Kenyon What influence did the metaphysical New Thought philosophy have on his teachings? This will likely need to be narrowed to one aspect of his teachings, e.g. his view of the atonement. Was Kenyon a Gnostic? Was Kenyon correct biblically in saying that our faith can force God to act? What was Kenyon’s influence on the Word Faith movement of today? Not a good question on two counts: It is easily answered (Word Faith leaders see him as the father of their movement) It is a blunt point – too broad. Kenyon’s influence was much too wide-ranging to be covered in a single research project.

11. Developing Preliminary Outlines From Research Questions 1. What influence did metaphysical New Thought have on E.W. Kenyon’s doctrine of the atonement? I. Introduction (Influence of New Thought on Kenyon in general) II. E.W. Kenyon’s Doctrine of the Atonement III. Relevant Teachings in New Thought IV. Influence of New Thought on Kenyon’s Doctrine of the Atonement V. Conclusion

12. Developing Preliminary Outlines From Research Questions 2. Who was the real Lucretia Borgia? I. Introduction II. The Lucretia of historical legend III. Balancing view of Lucretia IV. Conclusion 3. With regard to the time of the Exodus from Egypt, is the earlier or later date to be preferred? I. Introduction II. Arguments in favour of the late date. III. Arguments in favour of the early date. IV. Conclusion

13. Research Questions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Think of a research question as an arrow seeking to reach a target)

14. The Concept of the Data Record The hitchhiker's guide to the meaning of everything / William Badke. Grand Rapids, MI : Kregel Publications, 2005. BS511.3.B33 2005

15. The Concept of the Data Record

16. The Concept of the Data Record

17. Keyword Searching with Boolean Operators

18. The "OR" Command This command is most often done when you have two words with the same meaning (cars, automobiles) or two words that are related (exegesis, interpretation) = exegesis OR interpretation You are indicating that you don’t care if the data has “exegesis” in it or “interpretation” – you want that data

19. The “AND" Command This command is done when want two or more words to appear in the same data. This will narrow the topic and reduce the number of results over what you would get with either of the words alone: = exegesis AND Malachi You are indicating you don’t want material just on exegesis or just on Malachi, but only exegesis of Malachi.

20. The “NOT" Command This command is done rarely. Its purpose is to exclude words that are bringing you data you don’t want. It is often part of a “nested” search command, for example: (exegesis AND Malachi) NOT Elijah where you want material on exegesis of Malachi, but not the Eljah passages within Malachi

21. Truncation and Wildcards In order to avoid multiple searches, some databases (but not GOOGLE) allow you to do truncation. For example, searches like this: Discipl* Discipl$ (our library catalog uses this one) Discipl? depending on the database and its rules, could mean: Disciple AND disciples AND discipleship AND discipling all in one search.

22. Truncation and Wildcards Wildcards are technically truncation within a word, e.g.: Wom*n Wom#n Wom?n to search for: Woman AND women in one search. Sometimes the term “wildcard” is used to mean truncation at the end of a word, so the meaning of this term is a bit slippery.

23. Controlled Vocabularies The concept of a controlled vocabulary is one of the most difficult to teach in all of research training. Imagine that you want to find some books or articles on the ethics of taking someone’s life because that person is suffering, and you think the person would be better off dead. What would you call this? Euthanasia? Mercy Killing? Right to Die? Assisted Suicide? It could be any one or all of these terms. Thus you have to do multiple searches, and there may be other terms you haven’t thought of.

24. Controlled Vocabularies Imagine that someone could make the choice for you so that you could use only one term and find everything in the database on your topic. Let’s, for example, choose Euthanasia as the term you will use to search for material on this concept. That would mean you would NOT use “Mercy Killing” or any other term. Everything on this topic would be searchable under Euthanasia.

25. Controlled Vocabularies The Library of Congress in Washington, DC faced this problem back in the late 1800s. There were no computers, so patrons could only search for books on a certain topic by going to a drawer of cards filed alphabetically that had that topic at the top of each card. Clearly, it would not be good to have some cards in the E’s, with Euthanasia at the top, and other cards in the M’s with Mercy Killing at the top. Thus the Library of Congress staff created a list of subject headings that they authorized, adding synonyms that they would not use. This created a “Controlled Vocabulary,” a list of authorized subject headings.

26. Controlled Vocabularies (From the website of Duke University Library)

27. Controlled Vocabularies Within the “catalog record” for each book was incorporated the controlled vocabulary subject heading system:

28. Controlled Vocabularies Note that controlled vocabularies are not keywords. With a subject heading like Emerging Church Movement, you can find most items on the emerging church. (Note that this is a new subject heading for a new subject, so it covers only those emerging church books published from 2007 on).

29. Controlled Vocabularies Keywords Controlled Vocabularies Search words formulated by YOU Search words predetermined by someone else You have to have the right words or you will miss things One search should get you just about everything on the topic You can put your terms in any combination you want, using Boolean operators like AND, OR, etc. The format and order of your terms is pre-set. You can’t combine subject headings nor use Boolean operators. You can change your words whenever you like The words absolutely CANNOT BE CHANGED

30. Journal Articles At this point we turn to live demonstration of journal databases.

31. Evaluation

32. Reading and Organizing

33. Reading and Organizing