Tag Archives: Research strategies

Research Strategies / HW 1

I’ve never been an amazing student, having falling out of love with reading and writing sometime around 6th grade. Interestingly enough, there have been occasions where I’ve submitted papers in 6 hours after I began them, and have gotten solid grades. Reading chapters 1 and 8 of Badke’s “Research Strategies” reminded of this; of times as a child in these places called “libraries”, an ancient lore. Surely I jest, as this class takes place and is labeled as a library class. As a member of “Generation Y”, the group which caused the technological boom of recent times, it’s interesting to see myself reading this book on my iPad and sharing my response digitally on a blog. It’s also interesting that I remember specific instances of me being a research glutton, as well as writing papers via a stack of notes, one main source, and as a quoter.  I question my academic future had I available a book like this one score ago, if I would even be at this school right now. I look to consider all of these techniques and create my own plan of attack, as my jack-of-all-trades personality allows, of not forces, me to do so

Chapter 1 (homework 1)

After reading chapter one I’ve come to find we as a nation need to learn how to communicate better. Yeah we spend all of our time chatting on Facebook, acting all cool on Twitter, and even texting our friends but what happened to the simple way of just getting out of the house and experiencing our stories verbally and in person. In the chapter he mentioned that back in the day only source of communication was through talking to one another and passing each story down.

I do have to agree about how we pass information which is completely better then how it used to be. A person that can easily access a computer can get any piece of information just by typing it in on Google. As soon as something cool, interesting, informative, or something completely stupid is quickly uploaded to a computer and spread around quickly.

I believe that our communication should be handled differently, but our way to spread information has improved since the Printing Press and should continue to improve so that our information is accessed even easier then it is today

Homework #1: Response to Chapter 8 of Research Strategies by William Badke

Badke’s explanation of how to read for research in chapter 8 sparked a great interest to me. While the tips presented to the reader about analytical reading (be ruthless, get to know the materialnwithout reading it all, etc.) from section 8.0-8.2 were very helpful, the sections following 8.2 became very thought provoking. I began to noticed my own traits for reading sources weren’t up to par. Section 8.3 of this chapter was completely relevant. I was one of those people who only used one or two sources for my data while referring to others to seem like I did more research than I actually did. I always knew that my research was “half way done” but it always seemed to work, giving me no reason to try harder. This is one thing I hope to change, and will change with the help of this class. One question that was placed into my mind while reading Badke’s section on paraphrasing when he stated (188), “this method leaves you particularly open to a charge of plagiarism, since you are still reproducing the writer’s work, thought for thought if not word for word,” was what if you are thinking the same thought as the author. The author can’t be the only person in the world who thought about a certain topic that specific way. I never thought expressing your own thought in your own words as paraphrasing, even if it was similar to the author or not. I may have been misinterpreting the concept of paraphrasing throughout my high school years. I will now try to avoid it. Through reading the preface, chapter 1 & 2 of “Research Strategies” by William Badke,  I already see the significance of the text; we shall use it to see what we’ve been doing and to understand the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques. Also, to learn new techniques and become an analytical reader.

-Destiny Modeste

Homework_1

While reading Badke’s book, I found it interesting to see the way he expresses his opinions and knowledge in the sources we use in our daily lives. That is finding any kind of information, by using the social web, books, electronic devices, and so on. Badke shared in the first chapter the beginning of information and how it was used, and passed from generation to generation. Not forgetting to mention “tradition” which for Badke is a way of seeing what knowledge is. For example going from verbally to print information to now being able to have information seen in electronic devices, like a kindle. Badke made it clear that not all information found or shared could be reliable, for instance the world of Internet where any individual can share freely. Going to chapter 8 is why Badke shares some tips on ways to make research comfortable for our future works, and to also know how to find correctly the  information we need.

Homework #1 – Charles Baculima-Castillo

Chapter 1 Blog Response

The first thing I noticed when reading Badke’s book is that he is the kind of author that is not afraid to give you his advice and point of view about research and documentation related topics. I enjoyed reading his unique way of describing how humanity’s information and “tradition”, which is his way of seeing what knowledge is, has evolved during time. He tells us how information was passed on from generation to generation and what the advantages and disadvantages are from each evolving method. For example Badke, tells us how before there was print, people would pass on information only verbally because there were no other ways. Then when written languages came along, it was easier for people to contain knowledge because it was documented. However because everything was handwritten by a small group of people, only a small amount of people, who understood the written language and had enough money, within the society knew about the knowledge base. Soon after the printing press became the solution to that as documents about knowledge were no longer being hand written but instead printed, which resulted in there being vastly more copies. Finally the introduction of the internet is what really spread knowledge worldwide because now everyone had access to spread their own thoughts, opinions, and knowledge on to the rest of the world. However one serious disadvantage the internet has is that it makes useful information more scarce as there is more information to eliminate because of unreliability.