Transcript Proper Researching - Winston Knoll Collegiate

How to write anything properly
BEFORE you start writing!
PROPER RESEARCHING
“NEITHER MAN NOR GOD IS GOING TO TELL
ME WHAT TO WRITE.”
JAMES T. FARRELL
UNDERSTANDING THE TOPIC
Once you get the assignment, make sure you
go over it carefully and fully understand what it
is you are to do and how you will be marked.
 Also check to see if you are banned from using
certain resources or must use certain
resources.
 Ask your teacher about any questions you have
BEFORE you start so you do not have to redo
work.
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UNDERSTANDING THE TOPIC
Choose your topic
 Refine your topic – for example a project on the
history of the NHL is fairly vague and will lose
focus quickly, however a project on the history of
the Toronto Maple Leafs is more focused and a
project on the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs
of 1960 to 1965 is very focused
 Your project should be focused enough to be
interesting and informative but not so focused that
you can not find sources for it.
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“BEING A GOOD WRITER IS 3%
TALENT, 97% NOT BEING DISTRACTED
BY THE INTERNET.”
ANONYMOUS
RESEARCHING
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Now that you have your topic settled you need to find some sources of
information. Please keep in mind that different sources will be provide
different types of information
You might used some of the following:
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Books – Of ten detailed information and it will be reliable but may be out of
date
Journals – Often very detailed information and very current, may be hard to
read and outside of databases hard to access. Try using the library portal to
gain access to databases and their journals
Newspapers – Will have very recent information, but will almost always lack
details
Encyclopaedias – Covers the issue in broad strokes, will make little to no
attempt to go into detail but will recent information (particularly online
versions), and be easy to read. A good place to start if you don’t know your
topic. Do NOT use as a primary source EVER! Always check to see if you can
use Wikipedia and other encyclopaedias at all.
Web pages – This has everything from very good information to biased
information and even completely false information. The following slides will
discuss how you can find the good and hopefully avoid the bad.
THE INTERNET

The internet is in fact more complicated and
bigger than most people realize, so the first
step is to get a feel for what is out there and
how to get it.
THE INTERNET
SEARCHING THE INTERNET
Now it is time for the real work, finding great
information
 Whenever doing an internet search do more
than one! You should use several different key
word combinations
 Example: First Nations, Native Americans,
Aboriginals, Indians, Cree, Ojibway
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SEARCHING THE INTERNET
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You should also do several different types of
searches:
 Firstly,
start with broad initial researching at
Internet Public Library, DuckDuckGo, Clusty/Yippy,
Wikipedia, and Mahalo.
 This will give you a broad sense of the topic. This
information doesn’t go into your notes but does
help you understand your topic and where you
might want to go with your research.
SEARCHING THE INTERNET
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Secondly, narrow and deepen your Visible Web
searching with Google and Ask.com.
 Once
you have experimented with combinations of
3 to 5 different keywords, these 2 search engines
will deepen the results pools for your keywords.
 You want to start making notes at this point
SEARCHING THE INTERNET
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Thirdly, go beyond Google, for Invisible Web (Deep Web) searching.
Because Invisible Web pages are not spidered by Google, you'll need
to be patient and use slower and more specific search engines like:
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Scirus (for scientific searching)
Internet Archive (to backwards-search past current events)
Advanced Clusty Searching (meta searching specific parts of the
Internet)
Surfwax (much more knowledge-focused and much less commercedriven than Google)
US Government Library of Congress
You may also want to use the link to Noodle Tools which has a variety of
different web sources for different situations.
You may also want to start searching the databases available through
the Winston Knoll Library Page
EXAMINING WEB PAGES
1.
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What the URL can tell you
Is it a personal page? Look for a personal name
(e.g., jbarker or barker) following a tilde ( ~ ), a
percent sign ( % ), or or the words "users,"
"members," or "people.“
What type of domain is it? Government - .gov,
University / Educational - .edu, Non-profit
Organization - .org (not guaranteed any more),
Company - .com, Canadian - .ca
Is it published by an entity that makes sense?
EXAMINING WEB PAGES
2.
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Scan the perimeter of the page, looking for answers to
these questions:
Who wrote the page?
Is the information dated or current?
What are the authors credentials in this subject?
Find this information by looking for links that say
"About us," "Philosophy," "Background," "Biography",
etc. or if you cannot find any links like these, you can
often find this kind of information if you Truncate back
the URL. Finally Look for the date "last updated" usually at the bottom of a web page.
EXAMINING WEB PAGES
3.
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Look for indicators of quality information:
Where did the author get the information?
If there are links to other pages as sources,
are they to reliable sources?
Do the links work?
If reproduced information (from another
source), is it complete, not altered, not fake or
forged?
EXAMINING WEB PAGES
4.
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What do others say?
Look up the title or publisher of the page in a
reputable directory that evaluates its contents
(ipl2, Infomine, About.com, or a specialized
directory you trust).
Look up the author's name in Google or
Yahoo!
Find out what other web pages link to this
page, use alexa.com.
EXAMINING WEB PAGES
Does it all add up?
 Why was the page put on the web?
 Might it be ironic? Satire or parody?
 Is this as credible and useful as the resources
(books, journal articles, etc.) available in print
or online through the library?
This list has been summarized, a complete list of
web evaluation can be found at: UC Berkeley Teaching Library Internet Workshops
5.
EVALUATING WEB PAGES
Before we go further a quick test, identify which
of the following websites are real and which are
fake and if fake what gave it away?
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
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“QUANTITY PRODUCES QUALITY. IF
YOU ONLY WRITE A FEW THINGS,
YOU'RE DOOMED.”
RAY BRADBURY
NOTE TAKING
Once you have a source that is both relevant and reliable
it is time to take notes:
1. Record the source information.
 This will vary depending on the source but is the
information you will need to do an entry for a Reference
Page, but in general terms you will need the following:
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Author’s Name – if the author is an organization use the
organization as the author
Name of the book or web page
When the book / web page was published
Web address
NOTE TAKING
2.
Write your notes, depending on what you are writing
you should have several types:
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Direct quotations
Stats or other tables copied completely and accurately
Summarized information
Images: Pictures or Video Clips
For an essay you should have lots of the first three and no
images.
For a presentation you will need lots of summarized
information and lots of stats and quotes combined, so
some of both. As well as a fair number of images.
NOTE TAKING
Keep in mind that there is no such thing as to
many notes! However if you do not have
enough notes it is very hard to write an essay
or a presentation. So if in doubt write it down!
Make sure that you can clearly identify which
notes are direct quotes (word for word from
the source) and which are summarized
information. If you don’t you WILL have a BIG
problem in writing the essay!
3.
Only if you have LOTS of notes!
GO FORTH AND WRITE