Here are some helpful ideas to build your research skills

*Quick Start to Research

*Research is a process

*Topic*Soft Skills

Product

*The Product

*The product is a 4000 word, essay that analyzes an issue and argues a position statement, thesis or hypothesis using the highest quality of evidence in a logical manner using the language and methods of research of the field of study.

*The key is the RQ

*The Research Question generates the thesis.

*The question needs to:*Be limited in scope and sufficiently narrow to allow

4000 words to argue a position in depth*Relate two things (variables)*Be answerable (evidence can be found)*Arguable by a reasonable person*Involve investigation or analysis and be ethical*Use evidence to support claims made; Point, Proof,

Explanation*Use only quality scholarly sources*Meet the requirements of the specific subject guide*Must conform to all requirements of academic

honesty

*Thesis building

*Develop the thesis from the RQ

*http://tommarch.com/electraguide

*Using evidence

*Without a claim… Evidence is Not Persuasive.

*E.g. A new study appears, “Teens who multi-task while doing homework perform less well on tests.”

*Without evidence… A claim is NOT persuasive

*E.g. Teens success in high school is linked to multi-tasking.

*Without quality evidence… A claim is NOT AS persuasive as it could be.*E.g. The first study may be useful as evidence,

depending on?

*Types of Information/Evidence

*Primary vs. Secondary Sources

*Facts vs. Opinions

*Scholarly vs. Popular

Primary Sources Secondary Sources

Created at the time of an event, or very soon after

Created after an event; sometimes a long time after something happened

Created by someone who saw or heard an event themselves

Created by someone who did not witness or experience the events first hand.

Often one-of-a-kind, or rare Often use primary sources

E.g. letters, diaries, photos and newspapers (can all be primary sources)

E.g. history textbooks, historical movies and biographies (can all be secondary sources)

No bias; no viewpoint Express an opinion or an argument about a past event

The closer in time and place a source and its creator were to an event in the past, the better the source will be

Include an interpretation of primary sources, sometimes long after the actual event

*Why use primary sources? *Useful in history to write about the past,

"as it really happened." If the sources were done by people who really lived during a period or event, they are more valuable than those written by people later.*Need to evaluate primary sources as to their legitimacy

*Checking for authenticity

What:*What is the primary source? Does the type of source match the time

period? If so, is it in black and white or colour? Is it a letter? If so, is it typed, or handwritten?

Who:*Who wrote the letter, took the photo or painted the painting? Can you be

sure it was really that person who made it? Did they live during the time period?

When:*When was the primary source created? How can you tell its age?Where:*Can you tell where the primary source was created?Why:*Why was the primary source created? Does it tell a story? Is it a love letter?

Is it an order from an officer to a soldier? Is it a picture of the Rocky Mountains? Does the primary source tell you why it was created? Can you guess why it was created?

*Secondary sources are useful sources for expert opinion on issues and events.*Need to evaluate secondary sources as to the

author and their credentials to determine whether to rely on their opinion (Use book reviews)

*Facts vs. Opinions

*What is a fact?

*Something that is true about a subject and can be tested or proven*It has happened, is real or exists*Beliefs held by the majority of people in a field

*What is an opinion?*Something that someone

thinks about a subject*A thing that is believed to exist, to have happened, or is believed to be true*May not be the prevailing theory or overwhelming statistically (63% of people in a study did something)

*Facts and Opinions

*Use facts only after checking that other sources say they are true as well.

*Use only opinions from experts that you have determined are the experts in the field.

*Scholarly vs. Popular*Scholarly:

*Written by academics, professors studying/researching in the field or other experts on the topic you are studying.*Academic writing is considered to be of higher

quality since they write using the language of the field. Have high reading levels and deal with specific topics.

*Popular:*Written by professional writers or journalists who

research the topic in order to write for a publication. Or written by the a regular citizen with no particular training. These are usually written at a lower reading level than scholarly articles.

*Scholarly Articles

*Found in Journals which are periodicals that summarize new work done in specific fields*Written at a high level*Peer-reviewed by others in

the field before publication*No advertising; not for profit*Written by experts;

professors*Include references*Heavy reading; very specific

*Magazines or Popular Media

*Intended for a general audience/population*Written by journalists, writers, or people

who may or may not have special training in the field they are writing about*Few to no citations, references*Usually for profit/full of advertising*Not peer-reviewed, but edited

*Which is better?

*Which is better?

*What’s up with newspapers?

How do encyclopedi

as fit in?

*Edited Sources

*Levels of editing*Fact checking in newspapers*Editors vs. authors*Peer review

*Still no guarantee as to correctness; but better than no editing*Some sources are never edited:*E.g. Personal websites; some organizational

websites; blogs; social media etc.

*How do you judge the quality of

opinions?

*Credentials of authors?*(degrees, publications in the field, books

written, book reviews)*Google them!

*In what type of source did you find it?*Peer-reviewed or personal blog?*Newspaper vs. Historical book

*Should you use this book?

*Written by Stacy Schiff*Who is she?*What has been said

about this book?

*http://www.stacyschiff.com/about-stacy-schiff.html*http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/book

s/review/Harrison-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

*Should you use this one?

*Author: Frank Dikötter*http://frankdikotter.com/

*Book review: Robert Bickers, University of Bristol*http

://www.historyextra.com/book-review/book-review-%E2%80%93%C2%A0-tragedy-liberation-history-chinese-revolution-1945%E2%80%9357

*Take away 3

*What about bias?

*How to identify bias

*BIAS IS NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD, IT JUST IS.

Non-fiction is just someone’s idea of the truth

*You need to delve deeper before using the information:*Who is this author? * Is there an underlying reason for this person’s opinion?*Why should I believe what they say?*What does the author want me to think?*What does the author want me to know?*What does the author want me to feel?

*Using evidence

*Use biased evidence wisely by choosing only the most credible authors*Using evidence from these authors to

support your points and also to present counterpoints*Counterpoints should be raised and

argued against. You must address the important points someone arguing against your thesis would use.

*Evaluating Sources*THE ABCD approach

*Authorship –experts, scholarly*Bias – identify it *Content – accuracy and appropriateness;

good quality sources; edited, published*Date – current resources; decide whether

anything may have changed since the publication of your source that makes it out-of-date

*If you do find information on the Web and want to use it…evaluate it first. CRAAP test

*Evaluating Sources

*One easy way to evaluate a website is to look at the URL or web address

*Search strategies…How to find quality

sources*Databases and Search Engines*The Invisible Web

*Search tools*Search engines or Databases

*The Web is the swimming pool full of water that is the material on the Internet.*Different tools search different parts of the pool*Different search engines give preference to different

sites*Databases search materials that have been pre-

selected and hidden behind a partition

*What’s left?

*Material in published books is not found on the web unless the books have been digitized.*Find these in the school library using eMax, the

Library Catalogue.*http://hwdsb.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/506

*Information on the “Invisible Web” *The material that is not searchable by search

engines or databases.*Special tools help you. Special databases; search

tools like Infomine; http://infomine.ucr.edu/

*Databases

*Portals or doorways to sets of resources purchased by companies and sold to us.*Contain published works that have been chosen by the company for inclusion, so are generally of better quality.*Include periodical articles (journals, magazines, newspapers) but also have media and ebooks.

*Where do I find databases to use?

*HWDSB’s Virtual Library*http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/llrc/virtual-library

*secondary*library

*Questiaschool*ID: FC email PW: Ancaster

*Databases vs. Search engines

Databases Search engines

Search only sources within a company’s products (only deal with published sources)

Search the Web or parts of it. (much of the web material is “unpublished” or user must pay for access)

Authority or a judgement of who wrote the material all but guaranteed as authors provided and from reputable sources

Difficult to verify authors; not all scholarly sources

List resources by type of source List all sources in order of the search engine’s algorithm (or in order by who pays them more or which sites get the greatest number of hits)

Dozens to hundreds of results 1000s to millions of hits