Category Archives: Class Activities

What we agreed upon that was most important was how the use of “And” or “Or” narrows down your searches. Another one is how to develop and construct a specific and good research question. We also agreed that knowing the author’s background and history can help us determine how viable a source is.

One thing that we agreed that we wished we spent more time on is the history of Google and how it was developed.

1) The three things that have been most useful to us as a group was the focused research question, because it taught us how to narrow down our search topics. The second thing was the BEAM model, because it made it easier for us to know how to use sources in a research paper. Lastly, we now have a better understanding of how to use databases properly.

2) We would like to have spent more time distinguishing between peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles.

There are many things I learned about searching in this class, but the three things that I will try to apply on a daily basis would be how to:

1. Using AND/OR properly

• This is important because it helps me specify what I am searching for. Using and/or in the right places helps me narrow down my search results which pertain to the topic I am trying to gather information on.

1. Developing research topics

• Trying to narrow down a research question is quite the daunting task. Using the information I gathered from this class, I know what words to use, how to structure my research question, and not to be ambiguous.

1. Checking the background info on sources we use

• The legitimacy of a source is important. Learning how to search about the authors who publish the articles that I will cite is instrumental to the factuality of the topic I am discussing.

What I wish we spent more time on is identifying what type of source we are using. BEAM helps a lot, and so did the graphs, but it’s a slippery slope trying to differentiate between sources.

If I were to select three of the most helpful things that I’ve learned throughout the course, I believe that it would have to be:

• Basic Searches — using AND/OR, quotation marks, parentheses, the asterisk (*), etc.
• Finding sources using various keywords, databases, etc.
• Creating a research question and further developing the question into a more specific question.

Basic Searches are crucial in terms of using a search engine because they basically inform the search engine what to sort out/find for the user.  I find it to be important because prior to my findings in this class, I had no clue that simple words like “and/or” would make a difference in a simple search.

Finding sources helped me in the sense that it taught me that there were multiple resources available to me now that I’m a college student (i.e. databases, keywords, etc.).  It helped me realize that you don’t have to specifically search for information directly on your topic, but you can research on topics relating to your topic.

Creating a research question feels critical to me for future research papers and other projects to come.

I wish that we had spent more time on evaluating sources for how authoritative the author is, the quality of the research/material presented in the articles, and the relevance to our research questions and how to apply them to our work.

1. One of the things we learned in class that I think will be very useful in the future is how to search for sources on a database so that the best sources are found. Using and/or in your search terms is a very useful way to narrow down your search results to find a specific source. I think I will use this approach when doing future research projects.

2. Another thing we learned in class that I will consider in the future is the authority of authors. Knowing if the author of a source you found is popular and has good credentials is important to determining if it is good source.

3. Another thing I think is valuable is all of the databases we learned how to use. I didn’t know these databases even existed.

I wish we spent more time on the history of Google and its development.

1)  I had learned how to use sources using the BEAM model. I learned to use sources appropriately.

2) The way to search a database using advanced search terms. I also learned methods on how to narrow my searches on library databases.

3) I had learned the way to find a narrow focused, unbiased research question.

I wish we had spent more time using more databases.

The three things that were most helpful to me were developing a topic, focusing the research question, and authority of authors. Developing a topic is helpful because sometimes the most helpful thing to do is just draw a concept map and try to get ideas from it, it can be a starting point. Focusing the research topic will be important in the future when I will be writing longer research papers. It will be helpful to have a focused question rather than a broad question that needs a lot of information to answer. Authority of authors will be useful because professors need to see if the sources you used will be credible.

One thing I wish we spent more time on was going more in depth for in the databases.