Here are some helpful ideas to build your research skills

*Quick Start to Research

*Research is a process

*Topic*Soft Skills

Product

*Research Learning Goals*I will be able identify different types of

information I need for my research*I will be able to identify and choose quality

sources*I will be able to identify bias in sources I use*I will be able to evaluate all sources I use*I will be able to generate a list of useful keywords for research *I know and can use tools and strategies to

locate good sources*I know how to access and use databases

*Minds On

*Think of a legal trial

*What types of information could be presented at a trial?

*How is each piece of evidence evaluated by the jury?

*Types of Information*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? E.g. McMaster*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

*Facts vs. Opinions*Think of our legal case…

*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

*Facts are extremely important because they are the true description of the events of the case*E.g. a weapon was found at the scene;

fingerprints were identified (no interpretation); smoking causes cancer

*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)

*E.g. a person may be thought to be “capable of the crime” in the opinion of witnesses* Jury/judge has to evaluate the degree to which they believe

the opinion to be true*Opinions are only as good as the reputation and credentials

of the person saying them. Are they “experts”? Are they “biased”?*E.g. Lawyers will call a psychiatrist in defence of the accused

and another could be called for the prosecution. The jury believes the more credible of the two. (Take away 1)

*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?

*Can you classify information?

*A student finds information about Sir John A. MacDonald’s life and accomplishments on Wikipedia.*Primary or Secondary?*Mainly facts or opinions?*Scholarly or popular?

*(Take away 2)

*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?

*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 (Take away 3)

*Search strategies…How to find quality

sources*Keywords*Search strings*Databases and Search Engines

*Keywords

*Start with a topic in mind:

*Is it known by other terms, phrases or acronyms? SAME

*What Big Ideas surround the topic? BIGGER

*What areas of detail might you want to focus on? FOCUS

*Keyword example

*http://instagrok.com

*World War I*Similar:

*Big Ideas:

*Focusing terms:

*Search strategies

*Use your keywords to develop “search strings” or combinations of terms that get you better results.

*E.g. “world war I” trenches allies “mustard gas”

*What keywords may help?

*4. Promoting culture and arts*a. Music*b. Art*c. Drama*d. TV*e. Dance* f. Sports, Olympics*g. Authors*h. Architecture (Take away 4)

*Making searches better

*Use grammar*“quotation marks”

*Use advanced search to limit by geography*https://www.google.ca/advanced_search

*Limit by type of file:*Filetype:pdf or doc*Or limit by date (not perfect)

*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

(take away 5)

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

*Did you learn anything?

I will be able identify different types of information I need for my research

I will be able to identify and choose quality sources

I will be able to identify bias in sources I use

I will be able to evaluate all sources I use

I will be able to generate a list of useful keywords for research

I know and can use tools and strategies to locate good sources

I know how to access and use databases