Research

Thinking Critically about Research

Research is best approached in steps. Unfortunately, the semester is too short a time to really immerse ourselves into the “ideal” research process. Ideally, you should spend quite a bit of time researching your topic’s background, evaluating the sources you find, refining your research, evaluating the new information you find, interpreting the information, and synthesizing your findings into a review of what is known about your topic up to the present. From there you begin to explain what you’re doing that’s new or, in some cases, recommend a strategy for dealing with some issue. Since we have a limited amount of time, we need to get into our research quickly. Regardless of the time you have for research, efficiency is imperative.

Annotated Bibliography

I’m going to have you find 10 sources for your annotated bibliography (15 sources for groups of 2 or 3). Normally, the annotated bibliography shows the reader (me) that you've explored a topic, done background research. This research is supposed to inform your research questions and, ultimately, your final project (report, design, presentation, etc.). Please consider potential projects, which you don't have to do, that revolve around one of the following:

• Proposing a technical or scientific solution to a problem.
• Expanding a company or organization's business model(s).
• Describing a technology (must be different from your set of instructions).
• Describing a science (must be different from your set of instructions).
• Something else related to technology or technical communication.

Please make sure these are actual, real world problems--no magic wands or science fiction technologies.

All the topics below do not have to be addressed--use your best judgment.

• Purpose of the project--what or why or how are you going to address the project's research question
• Scope of the project--what are the boundaries of the project (you can't cover everything)
• Methodology of the project--how might you go about gathering the necessary information or items for the project
• Timeframe of the project--how long might an actual project of this size take
• Budget for the project--how much might a project you're proposing cost (if applicable)
• Possible impact of the project--what result or results might you expect (this might already be addressed in the purpose)

Annotation Requirements

The goal of this assignment is to do research the right way. By “the right way” I mean that you should always gather more information than you need; then, you should sort through the information in order to learn more about your topic. Some information might be more helpful than other information, but you wouldn't know that if you simply gathered the first few sources that came from google. In order for me to see what topic you’re considering, I want to read an  annotated list of sources.

By annotation I mean summary (about two or three sentences per source), evaluation (one sentence), and statement (including reason, which might be implied in the evaluation) about your intent with the source (one sentence). Annotated bibliographies evaluate possible sources and tell readers why a source is good or bad for your topic (bias, date, relevance, trustworthy, etc.). So, one more time, annotation means the following:

• Cite the source using the style most appropriate for your major or discipline--MLA, APA, Chicago, IEEE, CSE, etc.)
• Summarize the source in 2-3 sentences—that means you efficiently tell me what the source is about
• Evaluate the source in a sentence—is the source worthy? Why or why not?
• State whether or not you will be able to use the source based on your research questions(s) and, of course, why or why not

Annotation Example (alphabetize)

Tarrant, D. R. Marconi’s Miracle: The Wireless Bridging of the Atlantic. St. John’s, Newfoundland: Flanker P, 2001.

After discussing a brief history of wireless communication, Tarrant recounts Marconi’s construction of the wireless stations at Poldhu in Cornwall, England and Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The book covers biographical information about Marconi up until his early twenties, where it then focuses on experiments and strategies Marconi used to “bridge” the Atlantic. Tarrant, as do many biographers, emphasize Marconi’s genius as being able to envision the wireless as a successful commercial product. The book is historical and written for a lay audience; Marconi appears to be the only wireless inventor, making the author biased to a “lone inventor” myth. The book will definitely help my project because it offers important historical information useful to my argument [whatever that might be].

Where do you begin?

The first step is to ask a question about a topic (I guess the first step is coming up with a topic, but you often come up with a topic by asking what your interests are in a certain area). As a class I want us to go through a scenario where we ask a research question and then practice finding information using the library database.

Research question: What is the best way to reduce acid rain in the Northeast United States?

Whoa! That’s quite a question. If you were really going to ask this question, I’d tell you to switch to a more manageable question for a semester course. However, this topic will show us how to incorporate the following strategies:

• Refining a topic
• Expanding a topic
• Exploring the background of a topic
• Understanding the need for more research (in theory)

Let’s head on over to everyone’s favorite library catalog.

Library Databases Specific to Science, Technology, and Engineering

• Go to the the "articles database"
  • There are several science headings by subject (Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, etc.)
  • There in an Information Technology subject
  • The Engineering link brings you to a page of subdivisions
  • The Business link has a bunch of subdivisions
• The librarian associated with a particular field has his or her name and e-mail address on the right side of the page (Subject Librarians)
• Browse through the databases to see which ones may contain sources for your topic
• The above described databases mainly search articles in scholarly journals; use search on the Atkins homepage "Catalog" tab to find books, and click the Journals tab to find journals the library owns

Research Topics

Here are several issues to consider as you explore potential research topics. You don't have to think about all of them at once, but, if you get stuck, revisit these items below:

• Don’t bite off more than you can chew—aim to argue a small part of the topic you’ve selected.
• The above being said, however…don’t consider too small of a topic; you need one that will fit the requirements.
• Make sure you have a research question. Assuming you were to do a research project, you would use this question to guide your process.
• Write down all the possible words, phrases, and other descriptors you could use to search for information on your topic. (Think of synonyms, related ideas, and people associated with your topic)
• Think of the types of materials you’ll need for this research.
• Ask yourself how this topic affects you or why you, specifically, are interested in this topic.

Oral Presentations and Visuals

Since each of you needs to do an oral presentation with visuals, I have guidelines for you on the oral presentation page.