Over all i’d say a learned some valuable tools in the past few weeks. This sort of surprised me, not because I thought I knew everything but, because I found out how much I didn’t know. So here’s a brief list of things I didn’t know:
1) Not all search engines are created equal. Even the big three (Yahoo, Google and Bing) differ greatly in their search results and there are specialized search engines such as lexis Nexis for focused research.
2) Libraries live on! Must admit, I’d all but abandoned libraries but they’re a wealth of information. (duh!) The New York Public Library has excellent electronic resources as does the CUNY library.
3) A research paper that actually requires research. The days of regurgitated information are over. My research papers now have focus and purpose.
4) Focused searches equal focused information. If your looking for something specific focus your searches for specific results, and don’t forget to check your data bases.
There is much more information and many tips that I could include from Badke but these are the big four that will make an impact in my future writing assignments.
I don’t know if I’m alone in thinking this, but research seems to be synonymous with regurgitating information… at least in high school. To some extent, it also happens in college since the term causes a lot of students to think, “oh, I gotta look up some information, quote some people to avoid plagiarism, and then just throw in some links on the Works Cited page.”
Research is also defined differently by academic disciplinary courses – in Macroeconomics, simply looking up information on an item of interest is considered research already. And then there’s the typical scenario for Science with people conducting experiments while wearing white lab coats…
Thank you for mentioning the New York Public Library as an excellent electronic resource. I’ve never considered tapping on their database to look for sources for my paper, since I mostly use the library to borrow books, along with the fact that CUNY already has access to some really good databases (the Technology Fee does wonders!). Hopefully I won’t run into some “pay walls” while using the NYPL’s electronic collection.
It seems as though all roads lead to regurgitations. But by now we know the consecquences of such a choice. Surprising to me is that the more I search for information, it is the more conduits and info trails keep presenting themselves to me. I am browsing the “APA” American Psychological Assoc. for articles. I have to tie in behavior in my topic. Sorry to say but I am now compelled to read “Alice in wonderland’ as she was a pioneer in what I am now going through.
The focusing of my topic through the sorts and filters in databases have made my topic a success. Not only has this type of database proved to be congratulating, but Google/Yahoo/Bing narrowed searches on the internet brings up and interfaces results from open databases. Yet closed databases and pay walls seem to get me moving into the free ones were research is much successful.
I too had also abandoned the world of libraries since I was younger because I had misplaced my card and did not want to go through the process of retrieving a new one. Besides that, I really only used it for recreational purposes during the summer. Now that I have grown, I have really noticed the importance of the library and how useful it can really be if it is used for the right reasons and hope to use it more often now knowing hiw much of a great impact it can have on my future papers.