Beyond Google: Research for College Success

OBJECTIVES: 

1) Selecting a suitable topic for your annotated bibliography

2) Identifying key concepts and words related to your topic

3) Broadening or narrowing a search related to your topic

If you are at this Lecture #2 site and reading this text, I hope you have already completed the quiz in the folder for Week #2, as well as the readings from the e-textbook - chapter 3.  It is important that you have done so. The quiz assesses your understanding of last week's materials, and the chapters would have introduced you to understanding your research needs and developing a research strategy.  This week, you will submit a research question on the topic of your choice for your annotated bibliography.  

Following the above objectives of this lecture, you will find below descriptions in brief sections that describe elements about the research process. This lecture supplements the readings of Chapter 3 and introduces you to additional information and exercises for you to perform so that you may connect theory to practice.  Brainstorming your topic on paper by drawing a concept map is one of the best ways to zero in on a research area you might want to explore.   But first, to begin, I have included the definition of "research" which I have selected from my favorite dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary.  (The CSI Library has a subscription to the OED database.)  

As a reminder, this course is designed for a "class-meeting" of 2 hours.  As such, you should try to complete today's lesson in 2 hours.  Please set aside an hour to get through the section below, including the exercises to do.  Once completed, please go back to your Blackboard site, as you will be prompted to do so below, and spend another hour on assignments and discussions available in the folder for Week #2. 

Any questions you may have, please do not hesitate to email me or drop in to see me at my virtual office hour.   

Oxford English Dictionary Online, 3rd edition, 2010.  The OED offers not only meanings and pronunciations to over 600,000 words, but differs from other dictionaries in that it offers the history of individual words. 

The word "research" is used to describe a number of similar and often overlapping activities involving the search for information.  For example, each of the following activities involves a different type of search; but the differences are significant and worth examining. 

In College, you will be asked to write research papers in just about every course you take.  Why do you think this is the case? 

Let's look at research like a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) would. We are all somewhat familiar with mysteries/crime cases that air on tv or that you've read in a book.  How much does an investigator know when a case begins?  Nothing!  How much does an investigator know when the case is solved?  Pretty much everything! 

Here's a case:  Two children are missing after their parents are found killed.  Crime Scene Investigators are called to the scene.  How do they proceed?

• They cordon off (yellow tape) the scene when they first arrive
• They collect evidence
• They talk to people --bystanders, first responders, relatives -- ask questions
• They review the answers, check the facts, and delve further into answers which provoke additional questions
• They then analyze the data, i.e., evidence gathered
• They synthesize the information and solve the mystery
• The Crime Scene Investigators present the results of their case - children were found with little harm to them.  They had been abducted by a sex-offender who had recently been released on parole.  The parents of the children had testified in the case that sent the individual to jail for 15 years. 

Let's look at how you can apply steps in solving a mystery against solving the answer to your research question.  

So, to answer the question at the top... Why is it the case that students are asked to write research papers?  I hope you will agree with my answer when I say, if you follow the research process and do it well, you will be able to present an evaluation, interpretation, or argument of a topic (whatever your research question was).  By writing research papers over and over again, you will learn the art of (become an expert in) analyzing, synthesizing, and understanding complex issues, easily and quickly. 

This is a life-long learning foundational skill every student must know as it becomes the bane of existence when one enters the real working world.

The annotated bibliography is step#5 in the crime scene investigation.  An annotated bibliography will form the foundation of a research paper.  Developing one forces a researcher to better understand the sources that will be included in one's research paper.  As you evaluate and analyze and write up the summary about each source relating to your topic, you will gain a deeper perspective on whether it really fits as an answer to your research question...think of each one as a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. This exercise, critiquing each source, so to speak, may even reveal few sources that do not fit your topic and you may have to find additional sources.  

In this course, you will learn how to create an annotated bibliography and we will do so using a scaffolding process over four weeks.  First, (in week #3), you will identify a topic and submit it to me for approval.  Next (in week #4), you will find articles related to your topic and you will summarize the information for each of them following the prescribed details of creating an annotation. Next, (in week #5), you will find some non-print materials (videos, podcasts, websites, etc.) on your topic to add to your growing document. Lastly, (in week 6 and 7) you will learn about copyrights and how to avoid plagiarism.

For more on creating an annotated bibliography, please go to the navigation frame on the left of this screen and click on "Annotated Bibliography."  It's the last tab.

If you do not have a topic in mind for the annotated bibliography, here are some ideas to get you started...

Research requires a question for which no ready answer is available.  For the annotated bibliography project in this class, you are required to submit a topic in the form of a research question.  Asking a topic as a question (or series of related questions) has several advantages: 

1. Questions require answers.  A research topic is hard to cover completely because it typically encompasses too many related issues; but a question has an answer, even if it is ambiguous or controversial.  For example: 
   • Topic: Drugs and crime
   • Question: Could liberalization of drug laws reduce crime in the U.S.
   •  
   • Topic: Climate change
   • Question: How is global warming changing the climate?
2. Questions give you a way of evaluating answers.  A clearly stated question helps you decide which information will be useful.  A broad topic may tempt you to stash away information that may be helpful, but you are not sure how. A question also makes it easier to know when you have enough information to stop your research. 
3. A clear open-ended question calls for real research and thinking.  Asking a question with no direct answer makes research and writing more meaningful.  Assuming that your research may solve significant problems or expand the knowledge base of a discipline involves you in more meaningful activity of community and scholarship.

Developing a question from a broad topic can be done in many ways.  Two such effective ways are brainstorming and concept mapping.

Brainstorming is a free-association technique of spontaneously listing all words, concepts, ideas, questions, and knowledge about a topic.  After making a lengthy list, sort the ideas into categories.  This allows you to inventory your current awareness of a topic, decide what perspectives are most interesting and/or relevant, and decide in which direction to steer your research.

Concept Mapping. You may create a concept map as a means of brainstorming; or, following your brainstorm, you may take the content you have generated and create your map for it.  Concept maps make elaborate or simple and are designed to help you organize your thinking about a topic, recognize where you have gaps in your knowledge, and help to generate specific questions that may guide your research. 

Combining brainstorming and concept mapping (brain-mapping, if you will) can be a productive way to begin your thinking about a topic area.  Try to establish as your goal the drafting of a topic definition statement which outlines the area you will be researching and about which you will present your findings.

To view examples of some good and bad research questions, click on this LINK.  And no, no, no, you may not submit any one of these as your research question. 

Below are two documents for you to utilize in your attempt to come up with a good research question for your first assignment:

A research question that is too narrow or specific may not retrieve enough information.  If this happens, broaden the question. Most research questions have multiple contexts and varying levels of specificity. 

The underlined terms below represent broader ways of asking without changing the basic meaning.  If you find sources that treat a subject broadly, use the index or table of contents to locate useful sections or chapters.  Or ask yourself, "How might the arguments made here support my argument?

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INSTEAD OF:  Should Makah whaling rituals be permitted despite endangered species laws?

TRY:   Should Native Americans practice religious and social customs that violate local and federal laws?

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INSTEAD OF:  What are the economic impacts of sweat shops on development in South Asia?

TRY:  What are the impacts of U.S. labor practices on developing countries?

A question that is too broad may retrieve too much information.  Here are some strategies for narrowing the scope of a question.  They may be used individually or in combinations.

As you prepare to search any database, you need to have identified the central concepts on which you are about to research.  For example, you are in desperate need of a new car for your new job which is 50 miles away from your home.  Central concepts you might consider would be:  SAFETY FEATURES + RELIABILIY + FUEL CONSUMPTION.  You may further limit your choice by "cost" and "performance."

Search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and your library catalog, OneSearch, are programmed to match strings of characters and spaces and do not often understand the natural language we use with each other.  They can't guess what you mean, they don't "read" subtexts, and are easily confused by ambiguity, so clarify for them what you will be looking for, i.e., focus only on essential concepts.  

Earlier, we discussed broadening and narrowing a research question.  Vocabulary can also be broadened and narrowed to find different types of sources.  This chart suggest some alternative vocabulary for the following research question:

"Should Native Americans practice religious and social customs that violate local and federal laws?"

Please log in to Blackboard to complete the following listed in Lessons for Week#2.  Any assignment, quiz, or tutorial given in this lesson MUST be completed on or before September 10, 2024 and submitted by 11:30pm:

1. Using the above segments, 2.5 through 2.6a, begin to consider the research question you will submit via Blackboard by given deadline. Additional instructions are available in Blackboard - Lesson #2. 
2. Participate in forum discussion re: "Driving by Gender" - 30 points
3. Complete the Syllabus Quiz  (50 points).
4. Prepare for mini-quiz onWednesday, September 11, 2024, which will based on the above lecture readings and modules in Blackboard for Lesson #2.

CREDIT: With permission, partial content on this web page was adapted from the University of Idaho Information Literacy Portal.