Tag Archives: Badke

Google Scholar

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I must say that using Google scholar did help me find reliable, “professional”, articles. One problem that I faced, however, was the fact that I kept finding article that I had to pay for. Unfortunately for me, most of the article I wanted to use, I had to pay for.

What I liked most about Google scholar was the fact that I could see how many times that article was cited by other articles. By this feature I am able to distinguish whether the article s credible or not.

In addition, I would say that utilizing the advanced search option assisted me greatly. I feel that when I use the typical Google search I get a broad range of nothing and everything at the same time, if that makes sense. I receive so much information, that I don’t know where to start and it’s very time consuming. On the other hand, when I used the advanced search option, even though my resources were very refined, I was able to pull a lot of information from it.

Thank you Badke!

Research Journal

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The first difficulty with my research proposal was trying to take my idea and form it into a good question. I needed to be more specific with my topic at first when it came to forming it correctly. As I started to do some research, I started to see the different aspects of what I could start with. I was interested in the subject I chose at first, but after some trial and error I found so many different areas that I can touch upon than I previously realized. One of the strategies that I’ve used so far was continuing to use different searches until I found what I was looking for, sometimes finding more.

Journal on Topic.

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The first difficulty that I encountered was that I did not know what topic to choose for my research.  I even looked through some of the previous readings that we were assigned for some inspiration.  After I finally got a grasp on what I wanted my topic to be the next problem was coming up with the question.  The main problem was that my question seemed too open ended and Reading chapter 2 & 3 of Badke helped somewhat with that problem. One question I have about the assignment is how recent should our sources be? so that I can know what time frame to search.

Search engine wrap-up, and reading & blogging assignments for Monday 3/16

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Check out this recent New York Times editorial on the global digital divide – very timely! Today we discussed the mechanics of search, how search engines work, and how Boolean operators [AND, OR. NOT], truncation [education*], and nested searching (Teen or adolescent) can help refine your search results. We’ll spend next week assessing research needs, generating search keywords, and developing and refining topics. For Monday, March 16 please read Badke, chapter 2, “Taking Charge,” and chapter 8, “Learning How to Read for Research.” Be sure to read the study guide & practice/assignment sections carefully.

The draft of your research topic proposal is due on Monday, March 23 and the final is due on Monday, March 30. Please get in touch with any questions about your topics.

~Prof. Leonard

Badke:Chapter 3

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When reflecting back on my prior experiences utilizing search engines such as Google, I always thought it was best to be specific as possible, so that whatever results that would pop up, would be as remotely  close to my topic as it can. Unfortunately, this greatly limited my resources. I often found that the more specific I got, the fewer pieces of text I had to work with, and as a student writer, having more pieces to work with is always a pls. It opens up your horizons, and allows you to see different point of views to strengthen your writing. after using the “AND” and “OR” method, I was able to get a decent amount of research. will be using this technique from now on.

value of reaserch

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Information is a value in our days. Same as any possible goods, like money, sex or drugs or anything else people can imagine, and the way how individuals can collect the information( data) is valuable too. We all hunting for information , like our ancestors hunting for mammoths, it’s matter of surviving for us. Badke not open something new when he describe how syntax, punctuation and word combination can help to reach information faster, personally, I was familiar with this technic pretty  long time ago. Interesting another fact, why people forget about this practice? Modern dat -providers built on a way where users can get easy access to any shallow sort of information and it’s basically cover needs of majority. Generation of users doesn’t need sophisticated research, they has no interest in it. And from the other side, people who involved in serious research understand how to search information empirically, the field dictate the rules of usage.  

Badke, reading response.

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“With an AND search always look for the fewest number of terms required to get data that is on target with your search goals.” which was taken from chapter 3 of Research Strategies. In my opinion this is one of the most helpful sections of this chapter. Growing up using the internet I found that the words you use can either get you to where you want to go, or add time to your search. Badke put it nicely saying, “The more unnecessary terms you add, the more you risk screening good data…” In my experience I agree. While reading this article I see how useful the internet has been for me, but I also know it has it’s moments.

Searching For The Right Search.

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I never knew a topic/word search could be so intricate; all this time I have just been blindly putting in words into the search databases regardless if it was Google or Ebsco.  Badke describes a searcher conducting a broad search and coming up with 4,386 results this searcher ended up sifting through those results to try to find what he was looking for; all I could think of is “That’s me”!  I mean I don’t look through 4,000 results but I have looked through at least 100s of different results until I found what I needed.  After reading chapter 3 of Badke I plan to start using, ‘and’, truncation, nesting and ‘or’; all of which I have never used deliberately while conducting a search.  I have now seen the error in my ways and I plan to turn over a new leaf and to start searching the right way.

Order through Metadata.

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The metadata talked about in Badke shows us that sometimes you have to give up some control to find what you want.  Using a subject heading search can at times be a lot more effective than a keyword search; although I still believe a keyword search is more convenient for a lot of people.  A keyword search maybe broad but it will at times like a subject heading help lead you somewhere you weren’t planning to go.  Honestly were it not for school I would seldom use a subject heading/taxonomy search mainly because a keyword search is how I usually search for anything on my phone or at home. For me a keyword search is like a bad habit I have been trying to quit but it’s just too easy to keep picking up.
I feel as though the Jessica Dye article on folksonomy was written about one year too early. I say this because almost three weeks before the article on March 21st Twitter happened; twitter in my opinion is one of the ultimate folksonomy tools and would have surely given Dye’s article even more validity.  Almost everything on twitter gets tagged no matter what it is, the whole hash-tag phenomena has taken off since twitter started being used by the public.  One problem with folksonomy happened in class when professor Leonard mispelled ‘Nicky Minaj’ in a picture search and everyone who misspelled her name and tagged her picture with a “y” showed up, but when she corrected her search and spelled it with a ‘i” it displayed a lot more pictures.  I bring this up to show that folksonomy is not always used correctly, if you misspell a word that word still gets tagged with that misspelling so any picture with that misspelling might not show up for someone who searches for it while using the correct spelling.

MetaPower

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The reading of chapter four of Badke’s book Research Strategies, an eye opening account is given about metadata and the power of controlled vocabularies. Before reading this chapter I used to think that keyword search was the ultimate way in which one could search for information when researching for a paper. I was stunned to learn that it had many flaws which  contributes to why searching for information on a research topic was so difficult in the past. Instead of struggling through trial and error on using keywords in a database search engine, it is better to use controlled vocabularies or subject headings to find what you are looking for, because it encompasses every set of data related to what you are looking for. It would be nice if this powerful tool or way of searching could be implemented to the WWW because it would make life much easier. I may be too quick to judge because the increased use of the electronic tagging system known as folksonomy might just become the WWW’s “controlled vocabulary.” The only difference is that it won’t be controlled, as it is user created which is very cool.

On the other hand the reading  Graphs by MIT Students Show the Enormously Intrusive Nature of Metadata by Crockford revealed how simple pieces of metadata from an individual’s email activities can reveal a whole lot about who they are. This was where I realized that metadata could be used for so much more than just searching for information. Despite all the positives, metadata can be used for the bad just as much as the good. Truth is that any invention that wields power faces this same problem. Look at the internet for example, it hosts a wide variety of positive features that I can’t even begin to list, but of course there are those who would use it for various malpractices. Knowing this do we stop using the internet? No, we be the responsible people that we are and use it for good.