This document provides guidance on researching topics and evaluating sources. It discusses what research is and is not, including that research involves questioning, logical organization, and incorporating prior findings while avoiding random thoughts. When evaluating sources, the document recommends asking if the source directly addresses the thesis or provides context, and if it is from a respected publication. It also outlines primary, secondary and tertiary sources and notes strategies like following bibliographic trails. The document stresses simplifying the research process and focusing on the thesis.
Writing for publication 2017 argument and mindmapping the articleSioux McKenna
How to develop an argument for your article. Every academic journal article comprises one argument, that is, a contribution to the conversation. Sioux McKenna. For more on this, visit: postgradenvironments.com
Writing for publication 2017 argument and mindmapping the articleSioux McKenna
How to develop an argument for your article. Every academic journal article comprises one argument, that is, a contribution to the conversation. Sioux McKenna. For more on this, visit: postgradenvironments.com
9 tips on how to write a good blog post by Multimedia Editor Julia Nienaber. Presentation for the EUVIRNA: European Training Network on (+)RNA Virus Replication and Antiviral Drug Development on the 4th February 2014.
Objectives:
* Identify the special information needs of creative writers
* Discuss the research process for creative writing and how different source types fit into that process
* Evaluate the usefulness of sources for creative writers based on their information needs
National Management Olympiad is an Initiative of Federation of Industrial Education, in Association with BrandShow Digital Solutions. This Event has been designed for Management students in order to provide practical exposure and an experience of real corporate world through online Virtual Business Scenarios.
9 tips on how to write a good blog post by Multimedia Editor Julia Nienaber. Presentation for the EUVIRNA: European Training Network on (+)RNA Virus Replication and Antiviral Drug Development on the 4th February 2014.
Objectives:
* Identify the special information needs of creative writers
* Discuss the research process for creative writing and how different source types fit into that process
* Evaluate the usefulness of sources for creative writers based on their information needs
National Management Olympiad is an Initiative of Federation of Industrial Education, in Association with BrandShow Digital Solutions. This Event has been designed for Management students in order to provide practical exposure and an experience of real corporate world through online Virtual Business Scenarios.
Though The Lens of an iPhone: Cartagena, ColombiaPaul Brown
The following photos were entirely taken and processed by me with an iPhone. See more: http://paulgordonbrown.com/category/iphoneography/
iPhoneography is the art of creating photos with an Apple iPhone. This is a style of mobile photography that differs from all other forms of digital photography in that images are both shot and processed on the iOS device.
Presentation on "The National Capital Workforce and the Economic Graph" by Jonathan Lister
VP Americas, Sales Solutions, LinkedIn at the Ottawa Education and the Economy Summit with other speakers including the Governor General of Canada and Mayor of Ottawa.
Freedom in America Paper Assignment Step 1 Pick a topic. WhSusanaFurman449
Freedom in America Paper Assignment
Step 1:
Pick a topic. What topic are you most interested in pertaining to this course? What is a topic you would be interested in writing a paper on? Your topic should not be too broad. For example, the Harlem Renaissance, is too broad. Focusing on a specific cause of the downfall of Reconstruction is a possible topic.
Step 2:
Research the internet and the library for primary sources, or first hand accounts of documents that relate to your topic. Analyze at least
at least ONE
primary source for your paper, you may use more than 1, but you must use at least 1.
Step 3:
Analyze.
When analyzing your document, thoroughly scrutinize the document, what it says, and the argument. Look through “
Guidelines for Analyzing a Primary Source
” (below) to help you come up with a complete analysis of your primary source(s).
Step 4:
Choose at least 4 books and/or articles
from the library or online journals from the library’s online databases. For journal articles, go to UD’s Library database section. For the databases section, articles on U.S. History can be found through Jstor and Project Muse.
*Do not use any encyclopedia sources or the class readings as a
secondary
source. If you use a website, it must be approved by the Instructor. You may use them as a reference, but these do not count towards your secondary sources.
Step 5:
Make sure you have a
thesis
statement
. This is the most important sentence in your paper. The thesis should be located in the first paragraph of your paper. The statement should be
concise
and not too broad. A thesis is the argument or point of view for your paper. It is something that you and someone else can
debate
. Your thesis statement should start out by stating something such as “This paper argues that...” The thesis statement is the statement that guides you throughout the paper. All of your main ideas should connect to your thesis statement.
1
Step 6:
Write your paper! Keep in mind the following:
1) Papers must be typewritten, double-spaced in 12 pt font, and 1-inch margins. Papers should be at least
5 full pages plus a Works Cited page (6 total)
and include an introduction, body, and conclusion.
2) You should have a well-articulated
thesis
. Formulate a central theme that links the primary source document(s) together and connects them to the secondary sources--the books and/or articles you use..
3) Use the "Guidelines for Analyzing Primary Sources" below as a guide. You do not have to answer every question, but be sure to answer the who/what/where/when/why of the document. Describe the audience for this document. Then move on to your own analysis....
4) Analyze your documents. What do they tell you about the cultures that created these stories? How do they enhance our knowledge beyond the course readings and material? Can you discern any deeper meanings beyond what is just on the page? What were the motivations for crea ...
T H E W R I T I N G C E N T E R Academic Services • .docxAASTHA76
T H E W R I T I N G C E N T E R
Academic Services • Phone: 962-7710
www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/
How to Write a Literature Review
What This Handout is About…
This handout will explain what a Literature Review is and offer insights into the form and
construction of a Literature Review in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences.
Introduction
OK. You’ve got to write a literature review. You dust off your world literature
anthology book, settle down in your Ebert and Roper at the Movies theatre chair with
your popcorn and soda in hand, and get ready to issue a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”
as you leaf through the pages. “Literature Review” done. Right?
Wrong! The “literature” of a literature review refers to any collection of materials on a
topic, not necessarily the Great Literary Texts of the World. “Literature” could be
anything from a set of government pamphlets on British colonial methods in Africa to
scholarly articles on the treatment of a torn ACL. And a review does not necessarily
mean that your reader wants you to give your personal opinion on whether or not you
liked these sources.
What is a literature review, then?
A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and
sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.
A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an
organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap
of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a
reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or
combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the
field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may
evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.
But how is a literature review different from an academic research
paper?
While the main focus of an academic research paper is to support your own argument, the
focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of
others. The academic research paper also covers a range of sources, but it is usually a
select number of sources, because the emphasis is on the argument. Likewise, a literature
review can also have an “argument,” but it is not as important as covering a number of
sources. In short, an academic research paper and a literature review contain some of the
same elements. In fact, many academic research papers will contain a literature review
section. But it is the aspect of the study (the argument or the sources) that is emphasized
that determines what type of document it is.
Why do we write literature reviews?
Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have
limited time to conduct res.
ENG 112 ResearchProject Annotated Bibliography=10 ([emai.docxSALU18
ENG 112 Research
Project
Annotated Bibliography=10% ([email protected]%ea.)
Research Paper=15%
Research Project Presentation=10%
This assignment is intended to familiarize you with engaging academic research.
Through researching a particular topic that is recent and examining it from multiple
perspectives you will create a fresh perspective and original findings that you can share
with your peers and our college community.
• Consider context. Make sure that you are clear about your purpose and
assess who your audience is and might be in the future.
• Make sure that your topic is something that you’ll be interested in and
curious about. If you know a great deal about the topic you will be less
likely to explore all of the perspectives that are being explored. You are
also less likely to be biased when approaching the topic if it is unfamiliar
to you.
You will have FOUR options for your paper. Options:
1. Choose a topic relevant to the themes in the stories that we have discussed
in class. The topic must be current. However, try not to choose a topic that
will have very few sources for you to research. SOME possible options
include, but are not limited to:
a. Power
b. Faith
c. Guilt
d. Remorse
e. Gender Roles
f. Surveillance
g. Identity
h. Race
i. Tradition
j. Authority
i. Examples for the above include:
1. An examination of how power
has been viewed throughout
history
2. A discussion about tradition
and how local traditions can
help to define a community
or culture
3. A discussion about authority
and how it can and/or
should/should not apply
https://learn.vccs.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-83699290-dt-content-ri…NG%20112%20Research%20project-Spring%202015%281%29.doc 4/8/16, 8:16 PM
Page 1 of 4
when thinking about
universalism versus cultural
relativism
2. Write an in-depth examination of one of the central issues in one of the
stories that we have read. Some possible options include:
a. What are some possible interpretations of the ending of "The
Yellow Wallpaper"?
b. What is the primary focus of "The Lottery"? (tradition,
gender roles, authority, etc.)
c. What is the primary reason for Othello's jealousy?
d. What makes Iago such a successful manipulator?
3. Write about overlapping issues in two or more of the texts that we read this
semester. Possible ideas include, but are not limited to:
a. Write a paper in which you take a Feminist Theory approach
to two or more texts we have read, such as "The Yellow
Wallpaper," Othello, and/or "The Lottery."
b. Write a paper that analyzes the narrator's role in a text. In
such a paper, you might discuss the narrators in "Cask of
Amontillado," "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," and/or
"The Yellow Wallpaper."
4. Choose one of the stories that we have read in class and research how
different literary critics have discussed the story under the veil of their
approach. For example, research how feminist theorists, psycho-analytic
theorists, queer theorists, etc., approach Othell ...
Lecture 1 in the Research Methods series.
See also notes for the Research Methods series: http://www.slideshare.net/lenallis/research-methods-lectures-notes
This lecture series aims to cover the basics of research methods for undergraduate students. By the end of the series students should understand:
-Why research is important
-How to identify good and bad sources of information
-How read critically
-How to write clearly
-Quantitative and Qualitative research
-The basics of experimental method
The overall point should be for students to take the activity of research seriously, but also to be motivated to go and conduct research and engage critically with material.
Introducing Research Writing to 3rd Graders, a K-5 Common Core Lesson by Writ...Suzanne Klein
An engaging lesson from WriteSteps that introduces third-grade students to an important genre of Informational Writing as outlined in the Common Core State Standards. Students review what research writing is, practice narrowing down broad topics into subtopics, and compare traditional sources to technology sources. The lesson plan for this presentation is found on our website in Third grade, Unit 6 on Research Writing. This lesson plan features a version of the presentation that includes teacher notes for guiding the activities outlined in the slide. For inspiration and more information about K-5 writing and teaching, like us on Facebook, https://facebook.com/corestandardwritesteps. We also have free Common Core resources on Pinterest, at http://pinterest.com/writesteps.
WriteSteps is a comprehensive writing system includes a year's worth of Common Core lesson plans that integrate best practices like writers workshop, the 6 Traits, graphic organizers, and the Madeline Hunter lesson steps in a format that shortens the learning curve to becoming a master writing teacher. WriteSteps includes lessons for narrative, informational, and opinion writing, and offers web-based lessons, visual aids, rubrics, and other resources. To use our Common Core lessons free for 30 days at no obligation, go to http://writestepswriting.com/freetrial.aspx.
WriteSteps Founder & CEO Suzanne Klein is a former K-5 teacher and writing consultant with extensive training in writing pedagogy best practices, especially writer's workshop and 6 Traits. She has taught all elementary grades including a Title I literacy program, and gave professional development workshops on Balanced Writing for the Bureau of Education Research. Klein holds a Master of Arts degree in teaching, is a National Writing Project fellow, and draws inspiration from teachers such as Ralph Fletcher, Barry Lane, Lucy Calkins, Katie Wood Ray, and John Collins.
3. Research: What It Is
Strategic exploring
Discovery
Questioning
Logical organization
of findings
4. Research: More On What It Is
Brick:
It includes your thoughts,
questions, observations
about the primary source
material.
Mortar/Cement:
It consists of
prior inquiry and
findings by
veteran
scholars that
supports,
answers some
or all of your
questions. It
can also refute
(can still be
5. Research: What It Is Not
Random accumulation
of
assorted thoughts
Other people’s opinions
minus your own
observations and
interpretation
Never-ending
exploration
of a topic
7. Two Simple Questions
When deciding whether a source is useful to
your project, ask yourself:
Does the book or article directly address my thesis
statement or offer some background
information/contextual framework that can be worked
into my introduction?
Is it printed in a publication respected in academic
circles?
8. Strategy Suggestions
If possible, pick a topic that you are interested in, or
modify the generic topic that you have been assigned.
Do you have a complex question? Break it into parts.
Use sources such as encyclopedias to get an overview
of your topic.
Write out a list of related and alternate terms based on
what you learn from the above step.
9. Another Strategy Suggestion: Follow
Bibliographic Trails
In The Craft of Research, Booth, Colomb and Williams
remind us
that :
[Research is] a profoundly social activity that connects
you to both those who will use your research and…
[also] connects you and your readers to everyone whose
research you used (273).
You can view research as a network of connected ideas.
You are actually expected to build upon inquiry already
made into the subject. Its just important to give credit to
those who pointed the way.
10. It may be a useful source if it…
has notes and a bibliography.
is printed by a scholarly or otherwise
respected publisher.
is posted on a respected, reputable
website.
is peer reviewed.
is written by an authority in the field
(do background check).
was recently written.
11. If we knew what it was we were doing, it
would not be called research, would it?
Albert Einstein,
Physicist/Inventor/Writer
12. What are the origins of the “shotgun” house, and
why did it become a popular architectural style
in the southern U. S.?
Imaginary Research Topic
13. Types of Sources
Primary Sources
• Are original
documents or works
of art
• Supply raw data
used to test
hypothesis
Selected example: Blue print of a shotgun
home
14. More Types of Sources
Secondary sources
•Analyze primary sources
• Help professionals to stay
current(Chapter in this text)
The Shotgun House: An African
Architectural Legacy 58
John Michael Vlach
Selected example: Book chapter placing shotgun homes in historical
context
15. More Types of Sources
Tertiary sources
• Compile and analyze
secondary sources
• Are usually reference
books such as dictionaries,
encyclopedias, almanacs,
etc.
Also see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/vernacular.html
16. More on Types of Sources
http://library.uwsp.edu/guides/webtutorials/primary.htm
17. Quiz: What Type?
Built to Meet Needs: Cultural Issues in
Vernacular Architecture (click on “Contents”)
A Field Guide to American Houses
Map of southern neighborhood containing
shotgun homes
Photographs of shotgun homes
18. Magazines Versus Journals
Architectural Digest
(Popular )
Art & Architecture Journal
(Trade)
(Scholarly)
Checklist: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/guides/spmaterials/
Buildings & Landscapes:
Journal of the Vernacular
Architecture Forum
21. More Previewing a Book
Even before you have the book in hand you can
do a basic evaluation by paying attention to the:
author’s credentials (may have to use
internet)
date of publication (older books are not
necessarily bad)
number of editions published
reputation/standing of the publisher
Note: These earmarks work for web pages too.
24. More Previewing a Book
When you have the book in hand,
and
to help you decide if the content
matches your purpose, take a look
at the:
book jacket
table of contents
preface and/or intro
illustrations
appendices
bibliography
28. Simplicity
Step back and observe what
you have.
Do you need to do a better
job of responding to your
thesis? Or will what you have
sufficiently do the job?
By Pete McKee
From Cartoonstock.com
30. Works Cited
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of
Research. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 68-101.
Print.
“Evaluating Sources of Information.” Purdue Online Writing Lab. Purdue University, 2010.
Web. 12 April 2010.
Georgia Perimeter College. RSCH 1203: Research Skills and Technology. Georgia Perimeter
College, 2008. 78-86. Print.
“Guide to Library Research at Cornell: Seven Steps to Effective Library Research.” Olin and
Uris Libraries , Cornell University. Cornell University, 2010. Web. 28 April 2010.
“Learn to Find, Access and Manage Information.” University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010. Web. 26 April 2010.
31. Copywriting, additional content
& presentation design by
Jené Watson
Georgia Perimeter College-Decatur
Learning & Tutoring Center
Spring/Summer 2010
Editor's Notes
Welcome to “Research Fundamentals: Selecting and Evaluating Resources.” Our goal for this workshop is that it helps you learn some of the key elements of solid research. At the end of the session, we will distribute some handouts with useful links and with some of the highlights of the workshop. Still, we encourage you to take your own notes throughout the presentation.
This quote by Zora Neale Hurston gets to the core of what motivates serious researchers. What does it mean to you? (Listen for answers having to do with interest, curiosity and a desire to know.) What Hurston is talking about is the plain-and-simple desire to get to the bottom of something.
Ground zero of research is having an attitude of curiosity. The good researcher is, essentially a strategic explorer. Start with a hypothesis, then set out in the direction that you think you want (or need) to go in. Be open to discoveries, revelations that deepen or expand the direction in which you planned to go. Remember that questions are a valid part of the research process and should not be hidden. They show that you are an engaged researcher. Believe it or not, you are not expected to know all of the answers.
Also know—and this is very important—that the research process takes a lot of time. You need time to think about how you’re going to approach your topic. Time to identify the tools that are going to help you find the research material you need. Time to examine the material once you find it. Time to adjust your thesis statement or research question, if necessary. Time to replace any useless information you may come across with information that is useful. This doesn’t even account for the time you need to fit all of the information together so that you can write or otherwise use the research material and the time you’ll need for editing and formatting the references. All this to say: start early! Early means as close to the beginning of the semester as possible.
Know that your voice is the most important part of the paper or project you’re putting together. Think of your voice as the bricks that give form to the structure and the research that you are seeking is the cement that holds it together.
For a number of reasons, many students have the idea that research primarily involves stringing together other people’s ideas and adding a little bit of their own commentary. Not so. Get comfortable with the idea that you are a scholar, or seeker of knowledge. As a scholar, you’re expected to have an opinion and offer insight, provided that you’ve taken time to think about and look into your subject.
People working in areas ranging from arts t o sciences and business to politics all rely on some form of research. Political polls, lab experiments, market research and field studies are some of the forms that research can take. Even writers and filmmakers such as Annaud here realize the essential role that research plays in helping them tell a credible story.
All that we will say during this workshop will essentially boil down to these questions. Remember them if nothing else. (Extract points from items listed on slide).
(Summarize points on the slide) Notice that point three on this slide says “Use tertiary sources to get an overview of your topic.” This is a very important step. Also, books that have “An Introduction to…” as part of the title are often good for helping you get a grasp of terms and concepts that are important. One of the main things you need to do is to pay attention to the bibliographies in tertiary sources. If you, for instance, take a look at the bibliographies of two encyclopedias and one introductory text you will likely see repeated names of people or institutions that have done important work in the field. Jot down the name(s) that you see repeated and search for research material published by that researcher or institution.
You are never alone on your research path. Chances are good that someone, somewhere has been interested in some aspect of whatever subject it is you’ve decided to explore.
You’ll notice that there is a primary theme of building running through this presentation. Like the pyramid, researchers build upon each other’s work. In fact, one of the major points of you creating a works cited page is so that others can come behind you and evaluate or build upon the research trail you left.
You get to do this with other scholars’ work too. Again, as we said a moment ago, check out bibliographies. You’ll uncover a lot that way. Look for running themes, terms, publications often-referenced, repetition of authors’ names. (Quote on slide is from p. 273 in The Craft of Research)
(Read points on slide) If the item passes the check points, remember to take down as much information about the source as you can, using proper citation style specs as your guide. This is probably a good place to mention that there are good reasons why scholarly material is preferred:
It doesn’t rely more on emotion rather than reason.
It involves research to test the ideas’ validity.
Its creators check the work for errors in grammar, mechanics and spelling.
Note that the term “peer reviewed” on this list refers to the process of having the article evaluated by other experts in the field.
A word about the last point: Just because an article or book was written a long time ago does not necessarily mean that it’s useless. If you’re doing research where historical information has a logical place, then you can pay attention to articles written decades ago. For example, for those of you doing research in fields like medicine and technology, anything written one to five years ago might be considered too old and probably won’t be well received by your professor. But those doing research on topics related to arts and humanities can effectively use material written a while back.
Sometimes you may feel like you are going around in a circle. If so, it’s okay. You should expect to bumble around a bit. Though we’ve presented our information in a somewhat linear manner, papers usually don’t get completed that way. Research is cyclical process.
Before you can begin to properly evaluate your sources, you have to have something to match the sources up with, so to speak. What this means is that you have to have a focused thesis statement, which is some question you are trying to answer or point you want to prove. For instance, I decided that I wanted to research something about shotgun homes, but if I allowed my topic to remain as broad as that I’d never get anywhere in my research. I have to decide what aspect of shotgun homes I want to deal with. So, I decided on the two-part question:
“What are the origins of the ‘shotgun’ house, and why did it become a popular architectural style in the southern U. S.?”
One of the first things I did was consult Wikipedia. The beautiful thing about Wikipedia as well as the downside is that ANYONE can add what they know (or think they know). I keep revisiting this point: one of the best ways to use encyclopedias like Wikipedia is to grab terms, concepts, and dates. Give your attention to only those entries that have bibliographies. Use this as a stepping stone to help you find good books and articles.
Some of the terms I was able to come up with from Wikipedia and other random sites on the web were: Katrina cottages, folk architecture of the southern U.S., Vernacular
Architecture of the U.S. In my perusing, I saw the name John Michael Vlach repeated often. I jotted down all of these.
Now let’s move on to talking about types of sources: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.
Primary sources are the objects under observation or scrutiny, or a document or object made during the time period that you are studying.
Imagine you’re doing a research paper on some aspect of Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye. The Bluest Eye is your primary source.
If you’re studying the origins of modern-day Spanx, a package of Spanx or an old-fashioned corset would be primary.
If you’re doing a study on how to stop pollutants from getting into the Chattahoochee River, then actual water samples from the river are going to be your primary source.
In the case of this exploration of the origins of the shotgun home, blueprints or photographs of shotguns will be primary sources.
Secondary sources are ones where critics or experts examine primary data. Here, we see a relevant book chapter contributed by John Michael Vlach to this larger work, Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture.
These are books that compile information from many secondary sources. It’s best not to quote from these sources because they’re not doing much in the way of analysis; they’re just presenting an accumulation of bare fact. Again, two of the best ways to use tertiary sources are:
to familiarize the researcher with relevant terms and issues
as a source for locating sources! (i.e. scan the bibliography of the encyclopedia entry for useful items)
I came across this bibliography which pointed me in helpful directions:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENVI/vernacular.html .
Keep in mind that bibliographies are tertiary sources.
(Presenter Note: When you click on the link to Berkley Library, go down to section labeled “Subject Headings” and tell students that within this list are terms that might relate to this subject .)
Click on link and explore key parts of web page.
Click on links to explore tables of contents before deciding.
Think back to what we said at the beginning of this workshop: one of your main concerns must be finding published by people respected in the academic community. These authorities either publish full length books or contribute chapters to books that other editors pull together. A third option is that they publish their work in journals rather than magazines.
Magazines are geared toward the general public. They cover news, current events, opinion, advice, gossip, personal stories. They tend to come out more frequently—once a week or once a month usually. When you think of magazines, think Time, Newsweek, People. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that the articles in magazines never have bibliographies at the end; there is no trail for the researcher to follow.
Journals are written for and by professionals in a particular field. The articles in journals are often based on research of primary sources. Journal articles all have bibliographies, footnotes, endnotes, etc. Some journals are published once a month, but usually they come out quarterly (once a season) or sometimes yearly. The price of a journal is generally a lot more than the cost of a magazine. Also, they usually are not glossy, have few if any advertisements.
(Click on the link at the bottom for a fuller illustration.)
A long time ago, people used something called a “card catalog” to find books. It was an intricate filing system composed of index cards that listed all of the information one needed to know to find what they needed in the library—be it a book, a film, a journal, a magazine.
Card catalog image from: Poetic Home (blog)/ My Favorite Vintage Things (entry)
The card catalog has gone hi-tech. Our school, along with all of the others in the University System of Georgia, uses the same electronic catalog to list their books. It’s called GIL which stands for Georgia Interconnected Libraries. Through GIL, students can look up books. We will not go through all the steps of how to look up books in GIL (please make use of our knowledgeable library staff for this!). We will talk about how to evaluate records that you do pull up.
Remember the scholar Vlach? I plugged his name into GIL and came up with this book titled Back of the Big House. One of the first things we see about this book is that it was published by a major university press. This is good. Next, we see that it has bibliographical references. Good. The last thing to pay attention to is what librarians call subject headings. These help you because they let you know how librarians categorize information and how to get your hands what you need. Jot down some of the subject headings.
(Toggle between slides twenty and twenty one)
As we saw in the previous slide, you can begin the investigation of a book before you even get it in your hands by paying attention to these aspects. Mind you, the investigation is not complete until you have actually gotten hold of the book so as to do a closer inspection. Now, let’s take a quick step back to talking about subject headings.
Having taken note of some of the librarians’ subject headings and doing a subject search in GIL allowed me to use Vlach’s book as a stepping stone to another text.
(Move to next slide)
From Vlach, I was led to this book, Common Houses in America’s Small Towns. Note that it shares qualities with the previous record: it is published by a major university press and has a bibliography. Now, before going out to physically hunt for it, I did a quick check on Google books which let me take a peek at some of the text. I decided that it would be helpful to me and will next go and look for it in a library.
Once I actually get the book in hand, the first thing I’m going to do is take a look at the dust jacket. If there is no dust jacket, often, the back cover of the book (if paperback) will contain useful information. If there is no info, then go on to evaluate the other descriptive parts of the book such as the table of contents, illustrations, preface, etc.
In the case of Vlach’s book and Common Houses in America’s Small Towns, I already gathered some (not all) vital information from the library catalog.
Also, if you pay attention, you’ll notice that when you go to the library shelves to get the book that you want you will likely see a variety of similar books sitting next to it on the shelves. Use the previewing technique we discussed a moment ago to find out if any of those books will be helpful to you.
Again, any of the librarians in our Learning Resources Center will be able to help you to find your way around in both GIL (our library catalog) as well as GALILEO (our collection of subscription databases). Also, Chapter 6 in the textbook for Research 1203: Research Skills and Technology gives a thorough explanation of both. In a nutshell, GALILEO gives you access to thousands, perhaps millions of newspaper and magazine articles, photographs, government document, full text books and more. You can access GALILEO anywhere on campus, not just the library. You can also access it from home. To do so, you just need to plug in an easy-to-get password.
There are 200 different databases that you can search to find information through GALILEO. The databases are categorized into the divisions you see listed on this slide (select a few to read). Keep in mind that your topic might fit into a couple of different categories.
It might take a few tries to find the right category to search under. One database that is a good starting point for any subject is titled “EBSCO Databases: Academic Search Complete.” It generally pops up regardless of the category you’re searching under, and you can also find it under the “Databases A to Z” tab.
Aside from EBSCO’s Academic Search Complete, which specific database or “Browse by Subject” category would you guess we’d look in to find information on my topic, shotgun homes? (Answer: Arts and Humanities, History, Social Sciences).
You may have a challenge immediately locating the right database and finding the right combination of words that are going to lead you to the kind of articles you need. This is another place where your alternate terms are going to come in handy.
As I mentioned, I figured that my subject fit in the categories of Arts and Humanities, History and Social Sciences. Though I tried all of my search terms, I found very little usable information when I played around in the Arts and Humanities databases. So, I went exploring in the History databases, found one titled “History Reference Center,” plugged in my main search term and lucked out with this article: “New Orleans Architecture: Building Renewal” written in 2007 and published in the Journal of American History. Notice that I circled the part of the record that says “Full Text.” Only those results that say this are going t o let you have a look at the whole article. When I took a look at the article, it contained some of what I wanted: pictures, social/historical context and a bibliography for me to draw from. The main thing I took away was the name of a respected authority in this area:
Karen Kingsley, professor emerita of Architecture at Tulane and the name of one of her books Buildings of Louisiana.
And so the process begins again from square one.
We’ve, essentially, come to the end of the workshop, but one of the final things I want to remind you of is summed up here by Henry David Thoreau. Keep a clear focus. Keep things as simple as you possibly can. This way the process of research is not likely to become too overwhelming and might even become engaging and fun.
An important phase of your research involves you stepping back and taking a look at the way that everything is fitting together. Avoid either extreme—either not putting in enough time and energy into the project or, on the opposite end, burdening your mind and your project with too much info. Do what you can to keep it simple yet still do your best.
Take students’ questions.
Advise students to consult GPC librarians either in person or online.
Thank students for coming.
Distribute relevant handouts and workshop evaluation.
