PROPER RESEARCHING

How to write anything properlyBEFORE you start writing!

“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.

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.

“BEING A GOOD WRITER IS 3% TALENT, 97% NOT BEING

DISTRACTED BY THE INTERNET.”ANONYMOUS

RESEARCHING

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You might used some of the following: Books – Of ten detailed information and it will be reliable but may be out of date Journals – Often very detailed information and very current, may be hard to read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

SEARCHING THE INTERNET

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

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

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: 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 commerce-

driven 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. 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. 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. 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. 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

5. 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

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 ThreeFour Five SixSeven Eight NineTen Eleven Twelve

“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:

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:

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

3. 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!

Only if you have LOTS of notes!

GO FORTH AND WRITE