Tag Archives: research

Research Blog 4

So far the annotated bibliography was the toughest, it took me quite some time to find some relevant articles about my topic and it was quite a lot of writing. I’m pretty sure it’s nothing compared to the writing of the first draft. I haven’t written many research papers before so I don’t really have a lot of strategies. I do know that if I want my draft to be good, I need to find some more sources which are focused on my topic. It was kinda hard to find some very specific sources, most of the sources were very broad. I would like to know where I could find some more specific sources.

Words of Wisdom from William Badke

I am a regular reader of ILI-L, an email list for librarians interested in information literacy and library instruction, and just came across our textbook author Bill Badke’s recent post offering advice to college faculty on teaching students how to research:

The Top 10 Things we All Should Know about Today’s Research Environment.

1.       Sources of information are changing
2.       Search in today’s databases is complex
3.       Students don’t understand the research process
4.       Students don’t know they don’t understand the research process
5.       Faculty are increasingly baffled by research technology, and that can be corrected
6.       Librarians hold the key to the information kingdom
7.       You need librarians, and so do your students
8.       Today’s academic databases offer so much more than keyword searching
9.       Electronic full text is winning the day
10.   Wikipedia is not Public Enemy Number One

Badke, William B. (2011, October 31). RE: faculty instruction. [Msg 9]. Message posted to http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/ili-l/2011-10/msg00266.html

Any comments? You know what to do.
~Prof. L.

Research Proposal

I’ve encountered a few difficulties while trying to come up with my research proposal. The first difficulty was trying to focus on something relevant and to try to elaborate the topic clear enough. As the topic which I’ve chosen is like there are so many things to talk about it was hard to stay on track. I did not use any specific strategies. I just did some research on my topic to see if I would be able to write about 5-8 pages on it. One question I have is how many many idea or points should we have and how much to write on each?

Notes from today, and reading & blogging assignment for Wednesday 10/19

On Wednesday, October 19 we’ll be discussing the research process: needs assessment, preliminary strategies, and topic development. This will be a good way to prepare for the research topic proposal, due next Wednesday, October 26.

Please read Badke chapter 2, “Taking Charge,” and comment on at least one blog post.

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. Leonard

The Politics of Research

Though Martin’s “The Politics of Research” was quite a long read he really touched upon how research and information is heavily influenced by power and competition. Information has always been held by the elite, those  who had power, knowledge, and money. Badke called them the “gatekeepers” and this still holds true today. Though everybody now has access to vast amounts on information we still don’t know everything, whether its the government or a corporation who don’t want certain information leaked to the public. Research that is government funded has to follow a set agenda and they only want to look for a certain outcome. If in the process the researchers  discover something else that might be better or is not on the agenda it’s  null and overlooked. That is a very narrow minded approach as they feel it would be controversial because of unpopular opinion. This is why Martin raises the question if research should only be held by the experts or by outsiders as well. Where research should benefit the majority of the public instead of just the experts funding it. Like the medical researchers who are more likely to research new drugs to treat a health issue rather than looking for alternative methods that don’t involve the use of drugs.