Research Project Introduction (10-15 min)
Go to Blackboard and open the PDF for the Research Project prompt (the last one at the bottom of “Major Assignments and Process Writing”).
Then, let’s look at “Primary Research Steps” and the two documents with the consent form and protocol that correspond to observations and interviews. We will do a training on these on November 3. But you can recruit and schedule and interview as soon as today!
Research Question activity (30-45 min)
Let’s look at the Research Question and Informal Proposal that is due by the end of class on November 3. We are going to start that now and talk through some examples.
As you get started, read through your first two writing projects. What seems to capture your interest about finding/evaluating/using information? What are you curious about? How can you position this into a research question to learn more about that thing?
Finding Secondary Sources (20-30 min; adapted from Baruch Student Project by Maria Frants)
Step 1: Find Your Search Engine
Google is a good place to start. Google will be harder to find and access academic sources, which are highest quality because all academic research that is published is reviewed by experts in that field.
Tip: Our Baruch Newman Library Search Engine is a great place to start!
Other education search engines include:
Step 2: Identify Your Sources
What type of source is most appropriate for the topic that you want to research?
- books or e-books
- edited volumes, collections, or anthologies
- government publications
- newspaper or magazine articles
- articles in scholarly journals
- websites or individual pages on a website
- YouTube videos, films, or documentaries
- Podcasts
Depending on your topic, one kind of source might be better than another. For instance, really “new” topics (e.g., pandemic disinformation) might not have that much academic research and thus could benefit from reputable sources that are not academic.
Step 3: Brainstorm and Use Key Words and Short Phrases
- Think about your topic. What are some words or small phrases that can describe what you are trying to research? Tip: Think of synonyms!!
- In searches, use quotation marks around a short phrase “” and all results populated will include that phrase
- In searches, use Boolean Operators- simple words (AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT) used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search
- AND: both keywords will be present in all result documents
- OR: one or both keywords will be present in all result documents
- NOT or AND NOT: all result documents will contain the first keyword but will specifically exclude documents that also contain the second
Tip: Use parentheses () as a way to combine boolean operators for an even more specific search
Ex: Searching (pollution or deforestation) and climate change returns documents containing: pollution and climate change; deforestation and climate change; pollution and deforestation and climate change; but does not return pollution or deforestation when climate change is not mentioned.
Try it out!
Look at what you have completed for your Research Question and Proposal activity so far. Brainstorm as many keywords as possible, at least 5. Try out some searches and have a link to at least 1 source that could be useful for your project.
Post the keywords under the “Keywords” heading and the source under the “Sources” heading.
Next Time (2-5 min)
- Anyone with gluten issues? I think that is the main one I need to know based on what I’ve seen so far.
- By Friday, I need the Information Analysis Argument draft. Preferably, I can get about half of them by Thursday.
- By end of class on Thursday, you’ll finish the Research Question and Proposal activity
- Get your Labor Log updated by end of Thursday
- Start recruiting!!!!!!!! Get an interview or observation scheduled as soon as possible. On Thursday we will do some practice interviewing/observing.