Notes from today, and reading and blogging homework for Monday, 4/23

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Anne Leonard

Today we discussed the rationale for documentation and citation. Our close in-class reading of the selection from Hauptman yielded some great questions and observations about how the six purposes of documentation he describes can be used, or mis-used, for a variety of scholarly and professional purposes. We briefly discussed link rot and the causes and effects of disappearing online documentation of scholarly sources. If you have a moment, check out the recent e-book about the implications of disappearing electronic references and footnotes: Vanishing act : the erosion of online footnotes and implications for scholarship in the digital age by Michael J. Bugeja and Daniela V. Dimitrova.

On Monday 4/23 we’ll continue our dicsusion on documentation and address standards, methods and styles for citing text and non-text media as well as standards, methods and styles for practices and processes. Please read Badke Ch. 9 and browse Purdue OWL’s APA and MLA Style sections. Your blogging homework is one comment on a classmate’s blog post (or 2 comments on 2 different posts with a total word count of 100 words).

Hope to see you tomorrow at the OpenLab launch event! It takes place in N119 from 3:30-5:30.

I hope to return your graded drafts with comments over the next few days so you can get started with revisions. Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. L.

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The Search and picking up the pieces

Posted on April 17, 2012 by darren732

Spring break, many think of sun, fun and relaxation. Instead its books, research and frustration. I have to say this has definitely been a difficult time though rewarding. I am still tweaking the search engines to give me exactly what I want but it is like using different filters to pan for gold in a stream of dirty water. The Library database is a great tool for digging for journals and articles of note and it has helped greatly. Now to make sure the draft is in line with what I want it to be. I don’t envy those who do this for a living because you have to have a certain mindset for all this knowledge and where to put it…

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Notes from today, and reading and assignments for Wednesday, April 18

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Anne Leonard

Today we discussed writing an academic research paper and played the evaluation game in class. Congratulations to the winning team: Carlton, Ibn, and Matthew, who presented an article from the April  12th Chicago Tribune titled “Student Loan Debt a Growing Threat to the Economy.”

On Wednesday, April 18 we’ll discuss the rationale for documentation and citation. Please read Hauptman pp. 7-13; if you missed class get the book on reserve in the library (call number PN171 .F56 H38 2008) and Howard, Hot Type: A Modern Scholar’s Ailments: Link Rot and Footnote Flight.

The research paper draft is due by 10 a.m. or in class on Wednesday! Please get in touch with any questions you have about that assignment.

Slides from today are available here.

~Prof. L

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chap 10 Badke

Posted on April 16, 2012 by David R

Briefly reading chapter 10 of Badke I see some good examples and approaches to coming up with an outline for my research paper. As he mentioned throughout the readings about research paper, the first and foremost important approach is to have a good research paper question. Having found a good research topic and question I still had some issues writing an outline as i kept adding much more than was necessary. I have to summarize and narrow what I write and keep reminding myself to elaborate on this or that but in the actual paper rather than give too much information and material in the outline. The draft is the next step and hopefully its easier since in the draft I can write the paper in its entirety.

 

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FROM LAB COATS TO ME “An amateur’s guide to researching.”

Posted on April 16, 2012 by ragoo8111

This spring break can go down in history as one of the most burdensome ones. I was multi-tasking on so many different fronts. It then climaxed with a visit to the hospital to obtain not so good news.

I foolishly assumed that research was some how limited to those geeks in the lab coats. And I just some how benefited from their heavy lifting in my searches for the best car. Be it in the form of JD Power and associates or Consumer Reports. I never for once linked research to academia . Maybe only from a medical perspective or perhaps mental health. Now I am becoming one of those geeks with my research paper. More interestingly it is the way my question keeps changing until I finally get the right niche or point of origin from which to launch. As Badke states in chapter ten needing a “cross-sectional approach.”

I have tweaked “ERIC” and “EBSCO” sufficiently enough to get some of the more relevant information that I am seeking for my topic. However the challenge lies in arranging it in such a manner that it presents for me, the arguments I need for my thesis and the new knowledge I intend to arrive and conclude. So as I plod on diligently in a path that my lab coat counterparts have carved for me to follow. I exit on this note from Douglas North.”I would be remiss if I left the impression that my life has been totally preoccupied with scholarly research.” So peers don’t forget to live while researching…….

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realizations

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Ian Pei

As this semester flies by in addition to continuing this research essay, I feel that I have learned a lot. Not just how to properly research, but time management when it comes to researching, media and what it has become, and much more. I think this class also helped up think about what’s really going on in our daily lives and what groups or individuals can and are affecting us if we know it or not. And from that, we can develop questions that you and I would have never thought of until many years later. Subsequently to my thinking, I’ve been able to locate information within my sources to better support my paper and hopefully all goes well by the end of it all. I will definitely take what I have learned from this class and expand on my abilities and knowledge for the years to come.

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Making the Most Out of Search Engines

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Liza

Reading Chapter 10 of Research Strategies has been quite refreshing, especially since the research paper has been far from my mind with the brief vacation that we’ve had. I feel like I need to revise my outline in order to properly structure my paper better.

On the other hand, the classes we’ve had on using advanced internet searching and article databases have been quite helpful in finding evidence to use for my research topic. Instead of having to swim in the sea of the standard “type-my-topic-into-the-Google-box-and-pray-I-get-good-results” method, I can modify the search engine of my choice to leave out unnecessary or unwanted results, though in doing so I could be leaving out some really good ones out there. Continue reading →

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In the Know

Posted on April 15, 2012 by matty65

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.

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Advanced Searching

Posted on April 15, 2012 by itohanedoloyi

Throughout these classes, I’ve learned how to become better at researching. The whole concept of researching a topic and being able to  manipulate search engines to get the exact results you’re looking for was something I enjoyed learning this class simply because I now have to ability to do that outside of this class. In the outside world ever since I was this method of searching, it is definitely a lot easier to get the exactly what I sought out from the start because there are loop holes that I wasn’t aware of in the beginning. In knowing these loop holes, I can use this when I have to write essays that require background research, so it’s definitely very helpful to know how to use search engines efficiently.

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Badke Appendix 1

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Suly Paredes

Once my research question came to mind, the hardest thing to begin is an outline. Writing a few scribbles and jotting down a few ideas and personal knowledge related to my question did not make the outline come about, it only made a bunch of ideas get jotted down. In the High School years, I usually wrote my research paper first and went along with an outline. Realizing how unorganized my paper came about, I noticed that an outline at the beginning would have made the paper much easier. Even if I have my ideas jotted down, my organization was the next thing to do. While I was organizing my outline, the order seemed to be fine, but when I wrote the paper, the outline did not make sense. To me, the relation between an outline and the actual paper has to be on point!

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