Datasets:

adriancowham

/

letstalk

like 0

Here you can see excerpts from all three versions of her project. Print Here is the opening of Vasavada's print essay: Opens with provocative statistics. In-text documentation follows MLA style. According to a recent Deloitte study, the average American young adult checks their phone seventy-four times a day (Wigginton et al. 3).

In total, these checks add up to about five hours of the day, and most of this use is subconscious: according to a 2015 study by British psychologists, young adults use their phones twice as much as they estimate (Andrews et al. 6). Further, our phone usage is not restricted to times of solitude: according to a recent Pew study, 89 percent of Americans report using their phones during their last social interaction, and 82 percent of those who did say that it deteriorated the conversation (Rainie et al. 4).

These numbers reveal the large role that technology plays in our daily lives, but also point to a more frightening trend: we are losing control over our technology usage. While we sense that using our phones during social interactions affects the quality of our conversations negatively, we are unable to change our behavior to fix this problem. Discovering such lack of control leads us to an extremely important question: is excessive technology usage a form of addiction?

If so, what should different stakeholders in the technology space do to curb its effects? Connects tech addiction to other kinds of addiction. From both a behavioral and a biological perspective, excessive technology usage closely mirrors other forms of behavioral addiction. While users can make specific choices to limit their tech usage, research suggests that they have not been successful in limiting screen time.

Instead, the responsibility and power to curb the effects of tech addiction now rest predominantly on the shoulders of technology companies, who need to make conscious design choices that prioritize user health. In order to incentivize such changes, we need to leverage existing power dynamics within the tech space, exerting pressure from both inside and outside the companies. Oral Here is the opening of Vasavada's spoken presentation: Starts by addressing audience directly and introducing her topic.

Good morning everyone. My name is Vrinda and I'm a sophomore studying computer science and economics, and I'm excited to present my research from this term to you on fighting tech addiction. I want to start us off with a couple of quick questions. Questions engage audience and elicit response. What was the first thing you did when you woke up this morning? Right. If you're like 60 percent of Americans you checked your phone within five minutes of waking up.

Here's another one: Think back to the last social event you went to. Did you check your phone? Short sentences and everyday language make presentation engaging and easy to follow. I thought so. Eighty-nine percent of Americans reported using their phones during their last social interaction. And something that's even crazier than that: 82 percent claimed that it deteriorated the conversation. So clearly we can sense that there's something going on where our phones are getting in the way of our conversations.

But we aren't able to do anything to stop it. This leads me to my main research question for today: Is tech addiction a real problem? And if so, what should we be doing to fix it? And here's Vasavada's conclusion: How can we solve the problem of tech addiction? There are a few key sources of pressure that we can use. First of all, pressure from within.

Engaging employees in conversations about ethics is extremely important because each of those features that we just talked about was brought up by a group of employees at one of these companies. Making sure that these people are thinking about the ethics and the impact of the features they're working on can be a powerful way of forcing companies to change. First, Second, Third help audience follow along. Second, pressure from where the money is coming from: the investors.

So if more investors start to place their money in places that do social good, that will have impact. And we see that this is actually happening. Recently Apple's investors called on them to produce a less addictive iPhone because they'd been seeing the negative effects that iPhone usage is having on their children and grandchildren and they are not happy. Third, leveraging hardware company power. The incentives for companies like Apple and Google are actually closely aligned with their consumers.

And if consumers think their phones are getting them addicted, they are less likely to buy the next generation. So in fact these big companies are very closely aligned with our incentives in making sure that we have healthy relationships with their devices. And they're in a position of power to make sure they are curbing tech addiction. For one thing, they can cap the number of notifications that certain apps can send us.

They can also make us more conscious of how we're spending our time by sending a daily report of where we've spent our time on each app. Concludes with a direct appeal to her audience, noting what tech companies must do to keep them. And finally, we see that there is a surprising source of pressure from consumers themselves. Our generation, Gen-Z, born between 1995 and 2005, has been confusing the media with our tech habits.

So while we have grown up with a lot of technology, 53 percent of our generation actually prefers f2f communication to digital. Not only will these companies want to develop devices that are healthier for their consumers, but in order to survive our generation, they will need to. Thank you! Digital The video of Vasavada's presentation was posted on her writing program's website, and you can watch it at letstalklibrary.com .

You'll see that she uses all five modalities: linguistic (her words), audio (her voice), gestural (her movements and facial expressions), visual (her slides), and spatial (her position in the room, the elements on her slides). Simple, uncluttered slide uses contrast to highlight key statistic. Shows key question on slide. Thinking about the Text 1. Vrinda Vasavada began this project by drafting a print argument.

Take a look at the facts and studies she mentions in the introduction to her essay: How well do you think it supports the claim she makes as her thesis? What other points might she have made in leading up to her thesis? 2. Compare the opening of Vasavada's oral presentation with the opening of her print essay. Her research question is the same in each-is excessive tech use an addiction? But note the differences in the two versions: What do you see as the strengths of each?

Which one is more memorable, and why? 3. Vasavada uses questions extensively in her oral presentation. What is the effect of those questions? Why do you think she asks questions rather than simply making statements? 4. How is the conclusion of her oral presentation organized, and what transitions link one point to the next? What do you find most memorable about the conclusion-and why? 5.

Write a paragraph or two about your own use or overuse of tech devices: What advice, if any, do you have for yourself about how to modify your use of these devices? Endnotes Transitional sentence sums up previous paragraph and points to new topic. Return to sentence States thesis. Return to text Announces her research question. Return to text Question signals what comes next.

Return to text PART 4 RESEARCH / FIND OUT Chapter 14 Starting with Questions, Finding Sources RESEARCH IS FORMALIZED CURIOSITY. IT'S POKING AND PRYING WITH A PURPOSE. -ZORA NEALE HURSTON THE IMPORTANT THING IS NOT TO STOP QUESTIONING. CURIOSITY HAS ITS OWN REASON FOR EXISTENCE. -ALBERT EINSTEIN You, it turns out, are a born questioner. In fact, research shows that humans differ from non-human primates in just this way: we ask questions!

In addition, humans have evolved to spend lots of time, brain space, and brain power articulating questions-and then searching for and creating knowledge that will help provide answers. And we do so not just because of everyday needs like food and shelter but also because, well, because it's just what we do . This chapter recognizes the questioner and researcher in all of us and provides guidance as you engage in these distinctly human activities. No one person is the authority on anything.

-CLEO KEAHNA Being curious-and asking questions-is at the very heart of the poking and prying with a purpose that Zora Neale Hurston associates with research. So doing research calls on you to immerse yourself in new ideas and topics you want to know more about, searching out what other people have said about them, and considering a wide range of perspectives-including those that differ from any ideas about the topic you already have.

Tracking down answers to important questions (another way of saying research) is crucial to getting and creating knowledge. While most of us grew up accepting ideas handed down to us by others, at some point we begin to question some of those ideas, to want to understand and evaluate them on our own rather than accepting them as just the way it is. We start to think about and search for answers to questions that excite or puzzle or even frighten us. In short, we become researchers.

In fact, you are probably already a pretty experienced researcher: the reading you do and the questions you ask before buying a new smartphone; the time you spend exploring your college's website to decide what courses to take; the hours and hours you spend looking for recordings by BTS or some other K-pop group. All research. During your college years, you will have the opportunity to do research in many courses and on many topics.

Take advantage of these opportunities to put your curiosity and imagination to work, to discover things you couldn't have imagined before now, and to add to your own knowledge. This chapter will help get you started on any research you set out to do. STARTING WITH QUESTIONS Choose a topic that matters to you Sometimes a topic chooses you, one you're so fascinated by that you've been thinking about it for a long time. If so, chances are good that this is a topic you should take time to explore.

Other times, you may be assigned a topic to research-particularly in a class you're taking or a job you hold. But even when topics are assigned, they are often broad enough to let you focus on one aspect that seems most important or that really piques your curiosity. Still other times, the topic may be left open to you as long as it somehow relates to the course content. In each of these cases, you need to focus the topic so that its importance is absolutely clear and in some way matters to you.

How NOT to do research! In one first-year seminar on environmental science, students were assigned to write a research-based essay on some aspect of sustainability. In response, one student who lived in a dorm chose to pursue a question that had been bothering him: How many plastic straws and bottles and aluminum cans were fellow students tossing into the trash rather than recycling?

So he decided to do a little field research, counting the number of straws, bottles, and cans he found in the trash cans on three floors of his dorm. The number was even higher than he had imagined; and when he thought about how many more floors there were in this one dorm, he was even more alarmed.

The question he started with led him to this basic research of his own, which he then followed up with research using online databases and other sources in order to find out what others have reported about the growing amount of perfectly recyclable material that ends up in landfills and dumps and even in the ocean. This student was certain he had identified an important topic, one that mattered and that was worth researching and writing about.

Think about your rhetorical situation Once you've identified a topic to research, take time to think carefully about your purpose, audience, and the rest of your rhetorical situation. Jotting down some notes on the following elements of the rhetorical situation will come in handy when you begin shaping your topic into a RESEARCH QUESTION and eventually a THESIS . Purpose . Why have you chosen this topic, and what do you hope to accomplish in researching and writing about it?

What do you want to happen as a result of your work? Audience. Who will read what you write, and what are they likely to know about your topic? What background information will you need to provide? What kinds of EVIDENCE or sources will they find most persuasive? Stance . What do you know about the topic, and what do you think and believe about it? At this point, how would you describe your attitude on the topic-neutral? curious? passionate? something else?

How do you want to come across to your audience-and how can you establish your credibility to write on this topic? Your tone (serious? humorous? conversational?) will be important for establishing this stance. Context . Who is doing research on this topic, and how will their work inform what you write? Identifying this part of your rhetorical situation brings you into a conversation that's already taking place about your topic and that will be very important to you as you begin your own research.

In addition, what is the context for your assignment: When is it due? Are there any requirements about the length of what you write and the kinds of sources you should consult? Genre . Have you been assigned to write in a particular genre-an ARGUMENT ? a REPORT ? an ANALYSIS ? a MULTIMODAL presentation of some kind? If not, what genre best suits your topic and purpose? Media and design . Are you required to use a certain medium?

If not, which media will best suit your topic and purpose and help you reach your audience? Will you need to include photos or other images? graphs or charts? Will you need headings? Does your assignment have any format requirements? Even if you can't answer all these questions right now, they'll get you thinking about your topic. And do take notes: it's amazing what good ideas may pop into your head as you think systematically about your rhetorical situation.

Do some research to get an overview of your topic At this point, it's a good idea to do a quick Google search, checking out a few sources on your topic just to get a sense of who has written about it and what's been said. Wikipedia can be a good starting point, a site where you'll encounter the various perspectives on your topic, find links to sources you may want to consult, and read about any controversies. Wikipedia will likely provide a snapshot of all that, which makes it a good place to start.

For now, you should just be dipping into a few sources, seeing what they have to say about your topic and casting a wide net to see what good ideas you may catch in it. Make some notes about what sources you might use. Focus your topic Once you've gathered some basic information and have some sense of the larger conversation surrounding your topic, think about whether you need to narrow it to make it more manageable. One good way to begin is to jot down what you now know about the topic.

Then highlight the points that are most interesting to you: the more the topic matters to you, the better your research and writing about it will be. Suppose you've been following some discussions online about the pros and cons of social media. So you begin with a broad topic like effects of social media. But you quickly realize that you can't possibly cover such a huge topic, so you begin to focus and narrow: How about cognitive effects of social media? Still pretty unmanageable.

So you try again: cognitive effects of social media use on middle school kids in the United States. This is still a big topic, but it is now narrowed enough that you can at least begin to gather information in a somewhat focused way. Come up with a research question Once you have a manageable topic, you can turn it into a question that will guide your research as you look for compelling ways to answer it.

Your question should be clear and succinct, and not one that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Does climate change exist? Well, yes it does or no it doesn't, and you're left with a one-word response that won't help you at all to engage the large body of work that exists on climate change. Here are two ways that the topic on the effects of social media can be recast as a research question: What are the cognitive effects of social media use on middle school kids in the United States?

How does the use of social media affect the cognitive abilities of middle school kids in the United States? These are questions that can guide you as you begin to research this topic. They are also questions worth investigating, because the answers will be very important not only to you but to others as well. As you begin your research to answer this question, remember to do so with an open mind, ready to consider sources that present many different perspectives.

You don't want to choose only sources that you agree with: take a look at what researchers and scholars with many varying, even conflicting opinions have to say. Plot out a working thesis Once you have a research question, the next step is to come up with a working thesis that can help guide your search.

Keep in mind that you'll keep asking your research question, and you may well modify the thesis as you continue the research, but your working thesis will function as a HYPOTHESIS , your best guess at this point about what you will claim in writing about your topic.

As someone investigating the effects of social media on middle school students, you might begin with a working thesis like this: Middle school children in the United States seem to be strongly affected by the use of social media, and excessive use has been shown to lead to troubling cognitive results.

This thesis will almost surely change as you dig into research on the topic: Will your research turn up credible evidence to support the statement that middle school children are strongly affected by social media use? If so, are the most troublesome effects cognitive ones? What is the correlation between the increasing use of social media and various behaviors among middle school kids?

These are questions that careful and systematic research will answer and that may then lead you to further revise your thesis statement. See p. 84 for more on drafting a thesis. REFLECT! Take some time to jot down some of the things you worry about, or things you wish you knew more about. BRAINSTORM about these things for ten or so minutes, until you've identified a few ideas. Which ones are most important to you, and which ones might have the greatest impact on others?

Choose one, and write a paragraph introducing this topic to a friend and explaining why you want to carry out research on it. Glossary RESEARCH QUESTION, 245-47 A question that guides research. A good research question should be simple, focused, and require more than just a yes or no answer. THESIS, 84-85 A statement that identifies the topic and main point of a piece of writing, giving readers an idea of what the text will cover.

EVIDENCE, 85-90 In ARGUMENT , the data you present to support your REASONS . Such data may include statistics, calculations, examples, ANECDOTES , QUOTATIONS , case studies, or anything else that will convince your readers that your reasons are compelling. Evidence should be sufficient (enough to show that the reasons have merit) and relevant (appropriate to the argument you're making). ARGUMENT, 99-131 Any text that makes a CLAIM supported by REASONS and EVIDENCE .

A GENRE that uses REASONS and EVIDENCE to support a CLAIM . Key Features: an explicit POSITION - a response to what others have said - appropriate background information - a clear indication of why the topic matters - good REASONS and EVIDENCE - attention to more than one POINT OF VIEW - an authoritative TONE - an appeal to readers' values REPORT, 157-85 A GENRE of writing that presents information to inform readers on a subject.

Key Features: a topic carefully focused for a specific AUDIENCE - definitions of key terms - trustworthy information - appropriate organization and DESIGN - a confident TONE that informs rather than argues. See also IMRAD ; PROFILE ANALYSIS, 132-56 A GENRE of writing in which you look at what a text says and how it says it.

Key Features: a SUMMARY of a text or other subject - attention to CONTEXT - a clear INTERPRETATION or judgment - reasonable support for your conclusions MULTIMODAL WRITING, 223-39 Writing that uses more than one MODE of expression-for example: linguistic, visual, audio, spatial, and gestural. HYPOTHESIS, 247-48 A supposition that's a starting point for exploration and investigation.

BRAINSTORMING, 45, 82 A process for GENERATING IDEAS AND TEXT by writing down everything that comes to mind about a topic, then looking for patterns or connections among the ideas. FINDING SOURCES In 2018, well into the #MeToo movement, Elizabeth Winkler began musing about all the strong, resourceful, and memorable women in Shakespeare's plays.

As she attended and reread these plays, she kept finding more and more instances of remarkable women characters, so much so that she decided to research the controversy over who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays. So she immersed herself in the arguments various scholars had put forward in favor of pos sible authors-an all-male cast including Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward deVere-and then turned again to the plays themselves.

And they led her to ask a most provocative question: What if Shakespeare was a woman? From there, she was off on the research adventure of a lifetime. Winkler's experience shows how research often works: you start out with a focus on a topic, even with a preliminary thesis, but a simple turn of the kaleidoscope can reveal an entirely new way of looking at the topic. And that new way of looking can then lead you to consider sources that might not have seemed relevant before.

In this case, Winkler's question led her to turn to primary sources-Shakespeare's own plays-with a new eye, which in turn led her to discover things in the plays that the real Shakespeare would have been hard-pressed to know, but that would have been known by a particular woman poet living at the same time: Amelia Bassano. From there, Winkler was off on a hunt for everything she could find out about Bassano. And she found a lot-enough to support her claim that Shakespeare may well have been a woman.

Was Shakespeare a woman? In doing her research, Winkler used time-tested methods: careful, critical reading of the plays-and of secondary sources on the question of authorship. She also did some field research, interviewing one of the scholars who's theorized that Bassano was the actual author. Most important, however, she kept her mind wide open to new possibilities, and looked for sources from a very wide range of viewpoints.

Like Winkler, you may also draw on both primary and secondary materials when you conduct research-and may even gather information from field research. What kinds of sources do you need? Deciding on the sources that will be most helpful to you is a challenge today when there are so many to choose from, ranging from books and articles and databases to video and audio files of all kinds-all readily available in your school library.

So it's wise to spend some time thinking about the kinds of sources your topic calls for. Like Winkler's, your topic might call for consulting primary sources and historical documents. But if your topic is a contemporary one-say, about the environment-you would probably need current sources from scientific and environmental journals. You might also want to schedule an interview with an environmental studies professor.

Whatever your topic, look for sources that represent different perspectives on it, including ones that challenge your own thinking on the topic. Remember that research is about INQUIRY : to learn about the topic, not simply to find support for what you already think about it. Primary and secondary sources Primary sources are original works-like Shakespeare's plays. They are firsthand accounts, diaries, historical documents, and materials generated from FIELD RESEARCH like interviews or surveys.

Secondary sources , in contrast, REPORT on or ANALYZE primary sources-and provide secondhand knowledge. So Beloved is a primary source, while a critic's analysis of that novel is a secondary source. Sometimes your purpose determines whether a source is primary or secondary. Suppose you are writing an essay on Cardi B, who won the 2019 Grammy for best rap album of the year. That album is your primary source, while a critic who has written a review of Cardi B's album is a secondary source.

But suppose you decide to write an essay on that particular critic's work: then the review of Cardi B's album would be a primary source for your research. Don't forget about NARRATIVES . Firsthand narratives might provide good examples or evidence, as well as appealing to readers. In the same way, a personal narrative of your own- your story-can also serve as a source you can draw on in doing research. Scholarly and popular sources Scholarly sources are those written by experts for an academic audience.

Whether they're journal articles, books, conference papers, or some other publication, they've usually been peer-reviewed by experts and include full documentation of their sources. Popular sources , in contrast, are written for a general audience; while they can be authoritative and cite scholarly research, they haven't been as fully vetted as academic sources, nor do they usually include documentation.

In the field of psychology, the journal Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice is a scholarly source, while Psychology Today is a popular source. Even though both kinds of sources can provide excellent information, you'll want to be sure that the sources you use are appropriate to your PURPOSE and AUDIENCE .

If you're writing about tax policy for a business class, the Wall Street Journal might be a useful source, but its movie reviews would not be appropriate sources in a film analysis for a history of film class. How to determine if a source is scholarly or popular What's the title? Scholarly titles sound academic and often include subtitles. Popular titles are more likely to be catchy, sometimes provocative. What are the author's credentials?

Scholarly sources are written by academics, those affiliated with a college or university. Some academic authors also write books or articles for a general audience. These would be considered popular rather than scholarly. Who's the publisher or sponsor? Look for academic presses or organizations. Does it include DOCUMENTATION ? Scholarly sources cite research and document their sources, both in in-text documentation within the text and on a list of works cited or references. If it's online, what's the URL?

Colleges and universities use . edu . Does it look scholarly? Academic sources tend to have a one-color, conservative design and often include tables and charts. Popular texts are more likely to have a colorful design and to include photos and other illustrations. Are there ads? Popular sources often include many ads; scholarly ones have few if any ads. See examples from popular and scholarly sources on pp. 254-55 .

All that said, keep a very sharp eye out for sources that claim to be credible scholarly sources-and look scholarly-because they may not be. In this age of FAKE NEWS , we now have to worry about fake scholarly sources as well, especially those that pop up in a Google search. Such sites are written and designed to sound and look scholarly. Check to see who's sponsoring the site: Is it an academic institution or an advocacy group?

And check out Snopes.com or another fact-checking site to see what they say about it. See Chapter 15 for advice on how to determine whether unfamiliar sources should be trusted. Finding sources on the internet Many of us turn to the internet whenever we need to find some kind of information. A click of a few keys and wham-o-a long list of sources! Google is not a synonym for research. -DAN BROWN Search engines . Many of us today begin research by using search engines like Bing , DuckDuckGo , or Google .

These are all powerful tools for research, but they can quickly become overwhelming. Typing in plastic in oceans on Google , for example, yields over 40 million possible sources-in less than a second. Still, using Google or another search engine as a starting point can give you an overview of what's out there-and help you discover photographs, videos, blogs, maps, and other materials related to your topic.

But the results you get from any search engine are affected by algorithms designed to give you what they think you want. And that is not going to help you find the multiple perspectives on your topic that you need. So don't just click on the first two or three items that appear. The good stuff may appear farther down in the list!

And get to know Google Scholar , a search engine that will direct you to scholarly literature across an array of disciplines: journal articles, books, technical reports, court opinions, and more. (What you won't find here: news and magazine articles, book reviews, or editorials.) Many of the sources available on Google Scholar aren't available for free, but you can access them if your college library subscribes to the databases that contain them-and most likely it does. Running searches on the web .

Whatever search engine you use or whatever you're searching for, choosing KEYWORDS will be a key to focusing your search to get the sources you need. Say you're interested in race car driving. Searching for those three words yields an unmanageable number of results, so you try race car drivers. Still too much. Further thinking leads you to wonder about the gender of drivers-and more specifically, about women NASCAR drivers.

So you narrow your search and type in women NASCAR drivers. There are various ways of focusing what a search engine looks for, but here are a few that work with many engines: Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase (women NASCAR drivers). If you enter those same words without quotation marks, you'll get sources with all three words but not only in that order. Use and to retrieve texts using all of these words (women and NASCAR and drivers).

Use or to retrieve texts using any of those words (women or NASCAR or drivers). SCHOLARLY SOURCE Published in an academic journal. Multiple authors who are academics. Includes an abstract. Describes research methods, includes numerical data. Cites academic research with consistent documentation style. Includes complete references list. POPULAR SOURCE Published in a general-interest periodical. Author is a journalist. Catchy, provocative title and photo.

Academic experts and studies cited but not documented. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that can give you a sense of what is being written and debated about your topic. But because virtually anyone can edit what's on Wikipedia , its information is always changing-which means it's a source you usually won't want to cite. Still, most of its entries include links and bibliographies that will lead you to other sources, so it can be a good starting point for researching a topic. Government sites .

Are you looking for information about AmeriCorps? the Census Bureau? the Justice Department? the Library of Congress? the National Archives? the Supreme Court? Go to USA.gov , where you can access sites for these and many other government departments. News sites . Many newspapers and magazines offer free access to at least some of their content that's available online. And your college library might well subscribe to some of those that don't; if so, you'll be able to access them through the library's portal.

In addition, some newspapers allow you to search their archives so you can look for articles relevant to your topic that have been published in the past. Google News is another source of news. It offers a continuous flow of articles from thousands of publishers and magazines. According to its site, it focuses especially on diverse perspectives-and in thirty-five languages.

And it allows you to search for news from a particular time period and to request email alerts about topics you're following (or researching!). Social media sites such as Twitter , Instagram , or Facebook , as well as blogs and podcasts, can be useful sources-or not. I follow the work of several cognitive scientists on Twitter , for example, as a way of keeping up to date on the work in this field, and I also follow linguist Dennis Baron's deeply researched and informative blog, The Web of Language .

In these cases, I know some of the writers and their expertise; I can generally trust what they say to be credible sources of information. I am much less likely to use information provided by sources whose reputation I don't know. As we all know, there's a lot of misinformation being retweeted and reposted on social media every minute of every day. So if you cannot trust or verify information you find on Twitter , it's wise to pass it by-and not to cite it in anything you write.

Image, video, and audio banks . Free images, audio, and even films are available in a number of sources on the web. For photos, check out StockSnap.io , Unsplash , Reshot , or Shutterstock . For videos, consult pexels.com and storybook.com . And for audio files, check out audiojungle.net , audioblocks.com , and freesound.org . Remember, though, that while these sources are free of charge, you still need to acknowledge and DOCUMENT any that you use in your own writing. REFLECT!

Together with a partner, do a search for the same term using the same search engine-but each on your own computer. Compare what the two searches turn up. Most likely they will be different. Why? Spend some time BRAINSTORMING about this, and how it might affect the way you think about search results. Using your college's library Learn how to use your school's library-the physical library on campus and the library's website that gives access to all that's in the library.

Take a tour, or try to meet with a reference librarian, and come prepared with questions: Where can you find encyclopedias, almanacs, and other general reference works? What special collections (of art, film, music, audio, and video) does the library have? How can you access library resources online? And once you've settled on a topic, see if there's a librarian who specializes in the field that you're researching. The library catalog .

The books, the encyclopedias, the films, the audios, and more: it's all accounted for in the library catalog, with information about where it's located. At most colleges, the catalog is digital; you can search by author, title, subject, and keyword. Do an author search if you want to find out everything in the library written by that author. Do a title search if you know the complete title of what you're looking for.

If you don't know a specific author or title, you can do a subject or keyword search that will give an overview of all the materials in the library related to that topic. Your library probably uses the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), so you may need to experiment for a while to make sure you're using a word that LCSH also uses.

For example, if you enter American Civil War as a subject heading, you would get a notice telling you that this is not a LCSH subject heading-but that United States History Civil War is. Then you'll be on the right track to do a successful subject search. Databases . These are large digital collections of journal, magazine, and newspaper articles and other sources. Many are available by subscription, but they are likely available through your college library.

General databases that cover a wide range of fields and include both scholarly and popular sources can be a good place to start: Academic Search Complete offers access to thousands of journals and magazines, including many that are open access. JSTOR provides access to millions of academic journals, books, and primary sources in seventy-five disciplines. ProQuest Central provides access to thousands of its most used academic journals, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, and more.

Look here for the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , The Economist , and more. Lexis/Nexis Academic offers documents from business, government, legal, and news sources. Subject-specific databases come in handy once you have a research question.

If you are researching the effect of changing rules in pro basketball, check with a reference librarian to recommend specific subject databases, or refer to several that are often very useful: AGRIS is a public domain database for accessing millions of resources in agricultural science and technology. ERIC gives access to journals, conference papers, and other publications related to education. IEEE Xplore provides access to publications in computer science, electrical engineering, and related fields.

PsychINFO provides abstracts for peer-reviewed articles in psychology and the behavioral sciences. MLA International Bibliography indexes scholarly articles and books in the fields of literature, language, linguistics, rhetoric, and folklore.

Conducting field research You can learn a lot at the library and on the web, but some topics might lead you to do your own firsthand research: to interview someone with expertise in your topic, to conduct a survey to gather information, or to observe people in a particular place or situation.

Field research that involves people may require approval; your instructor can help you determine whether you need to consult with your college's Institutional Review Board to make sure that your study will not be harmful to any of its participants. Interviews You can sometimes get information by interviewing someone with expertise or experience in the area you're researching. Say you're looking into the incidence of pandemics in this century.

You might interview a microbiology professor on your campus to help launch your search. Here are some tips for conducting a successful interview: Request and schedule the interview well in advance, either by email or with a telephone call. Be sure to explain your PURPOSE and ask how much time the person would be willing to grant you for the interview. Prepare a list of questions in advance. You might begin with some questions about the person's work.

But then move to open-ended questions that will elicit full answers. Avoid questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no (Do you follow the Spurs?) or that prompt certain answers (Don't you agree that student athletes should be paid?). Take notes or record the interview-or do both. Ask for permission if you wish to tape, and be sure to test all equipment in advance! Write down the person's full name and title along with the date, time, and place.

Say thank-you , both at the end of the interview and later in a written note or email. Conversations While interviews are often formal and structured, you may find that more informal, unstructured conversations can sometimes be useful for gathering information. Some indigenous researchers also stress respectful, engaged silence and listening as a way of coming to understand and appreciate the information that someone is sharing with you.

Here are some tips for having such conversations: Try to meet in a comfortable setting where you can do something together-sew, cook, garden, and so on. Ask permission to record or take notes. Share some of your own experience with the topic. Respect the other person's silence , and be patient waiting for response. Listen carefully and intently, letting the person know that you're paying close attention. Do not interrupt. If you do ask questions , do so only for clarification.

Express gratitude for the time spent together. Observations Some research questions will lead you to do firsthand observation. Say you're researching how the way desks are arranged in a classroom affects participation. You might observe several classrooms-one with desks in rows, another where they're in a circle, and a third where they're in small clusters. This kind of observing calls for intense and purposeful attention, looking to catch every detail you can and recording the data accurately.

Here are some tips to help you do so: Think about your PURPOSE . What do you want to find out? And how will you use what you learn? Plan ahead . What will you observe, and when? What materials will you need-a notebook? a camera or video camera? Do you need to ask permission in advance to observe, and to take photos or videos? Take notes . DESCRIBE the place, who's there, what they're doing. Don't start analyzing what you see; just record what you observe. Be sure to note the date, time, and place.

After the observation , take time to jot down any additional details and to record your thoughts about what you saw, along with any questions you may have. Review your notes and any recorded material carefully, noting any recurring patterns. What have you learned? Did anything surprise you? How can you use the findings when you write up your research? Surveys Sometimes your research will require you to get information from a large number of people.

Suppose you want to get student response to the latest hike in tuition fees. The best way to do that is with a questionnaire. Here are some tips for planning a survey and creating a questionnaire: Think about your PURPOSE . What are you trying to learn, and how will you use the results? Decide who to contact , and how. Will you email them a questionnaire? use Survey Monkey ? conduct the survey on the phone? Write out your questions .

It's best not to ask too many questions, and to make them easy to answer. Multiple-choice questions are easy to answer and then to tabulate, but you may also need to ask some open-ended questions to get the information you're seeking. Begin by saying thanks for taking the time to respond to your questions, and be sure to explain what you're trying to learn. End by again saying thank-you and saying when the survey is due.

ANALYZE the responses , looking for patterns and for what they reveal about your topic. Think about how you can use the information in reporting on your research. REFLECT! What have you learned about your topic so far? At this point in the process, which sources seem the most promising, and why? Are you finding enough sources to answer your research question? If not, might you need to revise your question? Have you looked at your topic from a number of different perspectives?

If so, have they got you thinking? If not, get to work! Glossary INQUIRY, 242-47 A process for investigating a topic by posing questions, searching for multiple answers, and keeping an open mind. FIELD RESEARCH, 259-62 The collection of first-hand data through observation, interviews, conversation, and surveys. REPORT, 157-85 A GENRE of writing that presents information to inform readers on a subject.

Key Features: a topic carefully focused for a specific AUDIENCE - definitions of key terms - trustworthy information - appropriate organization and DESIGN - a confident TONE that informs rather than argues. See also IMRAD ; PROFILE ANALYSIS, 132-56 A GENRE of writing in which you look at what a text says and how it says it.