Research Discussion

Announcements

• Patricia Hill Collins
  March 30th at 7:00pm
  McKnight Hall--Cone Center
• Turn in your Set of Instructions

Research Discussion

Here's what I propose for our research discussions:

• What is research?

• How would you find information on...?

• What is epistemology?

• How do we determine a source's credibility?

• What are the annotated bibliography requirements?

What is research? Why do it? Why is it something people devote their lives to? What does it mean to research a topic? Where do you start? When do you stop? How do you come to a conclusion? Do you or should you come to a conclusion?

I know what you're thinking: "Hold on! Can't you just tell us what to do?" Well, I could, but where's the fun in that?

As a class, let's think about how we've researched and been told to research in the past. Think about the research assignments you've done for other classes (in high school or college). What were their purposes, and how did you create a research "paper" or final project?

Epistemology

How do we make knowledge? How do we take data and make it information? Let's consider those questions as we explore epistemology.

Source Credibility

Are all sources equal? What makes a source credible or not so credible? Below are the names and descriptions of some types of sources you may encounter:

• Popular media—Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Charlotte Observer

• Internet sources—sources which exist solely online and do not mimic “traditional” print sources:
  (The links below should open up in new windows)

  • Legitimate: CNN.com, Salon.com, World's Greatest Webpage, etc.

  • Maybe not so…the Onion
    the Peter Pan guy (please be as objective as possible when viewing this site)
    the pregnant guy website, etc.

  • Encyclopedic and dictionary types:  Wikipedia, Dictionary.com, Nobel Prize winners, etc.

• Sources found on the Internet—databases and online "card" catalogs

• Trade and business sources—white papers, consumer reports, other sources for semi-technical to highly technical

• Specialized/Government Sources—commissioned reports, expert panels, empirical research

• Scholarly/peer reviewed/refereed sources—same as above

• Authoritative sources—the above three types of sources and usually primary sources or sources that have proven their reliability for offering credible information to a specialized group

Thinking Critically about Research

Check out our Research Page in order to see how to approach the research for your annotated bibliography and presentation.

Oral Presentation information and Visual Requirements are now up on the Oral Presentation Page.