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CH 42 DEVELOPING A RESEARCH PLAN CH 43 FINDING SOURCES CH 44 EVALUATING SOURCES CH 45 SYNTHESIZING IDEAS Research!

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Presentation on theme: "CH 42 DEVELOPING A RESEARCH PLAN CH 43 FINDING SOURCES CH 44 EVALUATING SOURCES CH 45 SYNTHESIZING IDEAS Research!"— Presentation transcript:

1 CH 42 DEVELOPING A RESEARCH PLAN CH 43 FINDING SOURCES CH 44 EVALUATING SOURCES CH 45 SYNTHESIZING IDEAS Research!

2 We do research every day in our lives. Conducting research is not a foreign concept, but most of the time we research things informally. We research by Making phone calls to get more information Searching the internet Asking a friend or expert Can you think of informal research you have conducted this week?

3 Two good things to know about research essays: Aim for a narrow research topic. You’re paper is short, and you must make sure you can cover the important aspects of your topic in the allotted pages. Avoid the Everything-You’ve-Ever-Wanted-to -Know essay. By this, I mean make sure you are creating a clear focus for your topic. Avoid telling your readers every single thing related to your topic. Make choices about what information really matters!

4 Ch 42 Developing a Research Plan Schedule your research! You must plan in advance in order to write a research essay, so check due dates. Consider purpose: what is the rhetorical situation? Who is your audience? What is your attitude toward your topic? Choose your topic. Consider your interests, consider the assignment, and then narrow the topic!

5 Ch 42 Developing a Research Plan Consider what you already know and do some preliminary research: For this stage in researching, look at sources that deal with your topic in a general way and provide a broad overview! (Even as you begin to do research, keep track of all of your sources… more on that in a moment.)

6 Ch 42 Developing a Research Plan Once you have a claim, draft a thesis statement. It may change as you write, but creating a thesis now allows you to have a clear focus and a good starting point! From here, try doing some invention or try creating a rough outline for your essay. Before you dive completely into research, try to form a general sense of where your paper is going to go and what you want to say.

7 Ch 42 Developing a Research Plan Keep track of all your sources! This allows you to make sure you are not committing plagiarism! Staple together copies of print materials. Store website URLs. Write down when you accessed the webpage on the printouts. Label everything! Keep everything together in a folder. Create a Works Cited page early – you can edit it as you go, but begin listing all the sources you used as you use them.

8 Ch 43 Finding Sources Primary Sources and Secondary Sources Primary sources = historical documents, literary works, eyewitness accounts, diaries, letters, lab studies, and any original field research you conduct, like interviews, observations, experiments, or surveys. Secondary sources = scholarly books and articles, reviews, biographies, textbooks, and other sources that interpret and discuss primary sources.

9 Ch 43 Finding Sources Print and Online Sources (this is usually secondary source material) General Reference Works (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.) Library Catalog (books and DVDs) Databases* (for magazine and journal articles**) Internet search engines (Google!)

10 Ch 43 Finding Sources *So, what’s a database? A database is an online collection of articles from many different magazines, newspapers, journals, and even other databases. Most databases are not available to the general population; they require a subscription. You can have faith that articles found in a database are relatively scholarly and reliable (unlike things found on the internet).

11 Ch 43 Finding Sources **What’s the difference between a magazine and journal? A magazine is written for a general audience, and a journal is aimed at an expert audience in a certain field. Ch. 23 has more information about searching these various sources for information, and we will learn about searching in our Library Lecture later in the semester.

12 Ch 43 Finding Sources Field Research (Primary source material) The most common 3 kinds of field research are interviews, observations, and questionnaires. For this class, you may only conduct interviews; no observations or questionnaires are allowed.

13 Ch 43 Finding Sources Interviews: Use these to find information you have not been able to find elsewhere Can be conducted face-to-face, over the phone, or via email. Tips:  Record the name of the person interviewed, and the time, date, and location of the interview.  Explain the reason you need the interview clearly in advance.  Keep your questions brief. A good interview might only be 2-4 questions.  Avoid questions easily answered with “yes” or “no.”  Thank your interviewee!

14 Ch 44 Evaluating Sources Consider Reliability: Print sources may be more reliable than web, since web sources are less controlled. Consider Your Purpose: If you are trying to persuade your reader, you will need sources from varying perspectives. If you are trying to inform your reader, you will need more factual or informative sources.

15 Ch 44 Evaluating Sources Questions to help evaluate a potential source: Is it relevant? What are the author’s credentials? What is the stance? (Is it biased in one direction?) Who is the publisher? If it’s a website, who is the sponsor? What is the level or who is the intended audience? When was it published? Is it available? Does it include other useful info?  (Consider Wikipedia here for a second: You may NEVER use a Wikipedia source in your paper; that said, going to a Wikipedia page to look at the bibliography section is a great idea! You can then go find those *better* sources for your essay!)

16 *Wikipedia Tip* Please remember, you may NEVER use a Wikipedia source in your paper! That said, going to a Wikipedia page to look at the bibliography section is a great idea! You can then go find those *better* sources for your essay!)

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18 Ch 45 Synthesizing Ideas When you write about a topic, you are entering the conversation already ongoing about that topic. Your position or stance as an author needs to be clear. From there, though, you can’t just drop in ideas from other sources. That’s not enough!

19 Ch 45 Synthesizing Ideas The whole goal of writing a research essay is to develop ideas and then support those ideas with source material. As our textbook reminds you, you must show your readers how “source materials relate to one another and to your thesis” (407).


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