descriptive essay

Assignment 7: Conducting Research

Gathering Information from Sources

Library Sources

If you have access to one, touring a university library is a good idea. Explore. Take a walking tour to discover how books, journal articles, and periodicals are sorted. Check out the system for accessing sources at computer portals located throughout the building. As you do, you’ll learn that you can search for titles by way of

· Author

· Book title

· Journal title

· Library of Congress subject headings

· Call numbers

· Keywords

Keywords

Whether they’re used to help you locate a library source or an online source, keywords are handy, flexible tools for locating sources related to an essay topic. Let’s say, for example, that your general topic is teenage pregnancy and your working thesis looks like this: “Sex education reduces the likelihood of teenage pregnancy.” In a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, you enter these keywords: “teenage pregnancy reduced by sex education.”

Suddenly (via Google Chrome, in this case), you’ll be faced with a menu of websites that address this very issue from a range of sources, including Planned Parenthood, Science Daily, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Finding online sources is easy if you have a well-thought-out working thesis. However, sorting out relevant and reliable sites is another matter and will present a challenge.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an increasingly popular portal for locating and accessing academic and scholarly sources. To get a sense of its pros and cons, and some insight into how it can be used, access http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/use_google_scholar.html.

However, as a student enrolled at Ashworth College, you should feel free to access Ashworth’s online library and Learning Resource Center.

ASHWORTH COLLEGE LIBRARY SERVICES AND LEARNING RESOURCE CENTER Students have access to the online library and to the online Learning Resource Center. Access to the Student online library is free and provided upon enrollment. Students may access the library service and resources through the online Student Portal. The Learning Resource Center (LRC) is located in the Community. The LRC provides a variety of resources to the Ashworth College community in order to encourage the achievement and success of every Ashworth student. The LRC provides tips, tutorials and answers for those students conducting research and writing papers. The LRC also provides resources to supplement those in the online library so that students may have access to a wider range of materials relevant to their coursework. Students may also participate in discussion forums in the LRC where they can ask questions about finding resources for specific assignments or subjects. –From the Ashworth College Catalog

Harvesting Relevant Information

Scanning and Skimming

While doing research for an essay, you’ll need to search out a wide variety of potential sources. To this end, you can scan and you can skim.

Scanning means getting a rough-and-ready idea about whether a source deserves more of your attention. For example, when checking out academic journal articles, scan through the abstract to see if the piece may be relevant to your working thesis; in checking out a book, look over the table of contents to glean similar information.

Look for keywords that resonate with the words in your working thesis. If, for example, you’re looking for sources that might support your working thesis on child abuse, look for words or title phrases such as “Child Abuse in Foster Care” or “Community Awareness and At-Risk Children.”

Skimming is what we do when we’re trying to evaluate a potential source. For example, in looking over a journal article or government report, you can read section titles, subheads, and topic sentences, as well as abstracts. Graduate students are often able to assess and summarize the relevance of a book source in an hour or so, simply by skimming over a table of contents, an author preface, key introductory paragraphs, and a list of references.

Gathering Citation Information

Nothing can be more frustrating than getting midway through the draft of an essay only to discover that you’ve misplaced the citation information for one of your key sources. The remedy for such crises is maintaining a systematic record of citation information. To do that, make sure you unfailingly and immediately fill out a source information form, even if you aren’t absolutely sure you’ll use that source. Don’t wait to do it later. As soon as you find a source you might use, fill out the form. The sample below is a “flex” form that can be adapted to the nature of the source—a journal or periodical (including a newspaper article), a book, or a website. Check the appropriate blank and proceed from there. The “NOTES” section gives you space to add clarifying information when, or if, it seems useful.

Author(s)

Title

___Journal/Vol./Issue; Periodical/Vol./Date

___Book

___Web URL

Pages (if given)

Publisher/Site Sponsor (book or website)

Place of Publication (book)

Copyright Date (if given)

NOTES:

You can create a form like this on your computer and print as many forms as seems necessary for a given project.

Approaches to Note-Taking

There are different approaches to note-taking. But whether you use note cards, computer files, or even specified sections of your journal, there’s one principle that applies: Be consistent. Let’s say, for example, that you like using 5" x 8" lined or unlined note cards. Write down your notes (legibly) and be sure to write the author’s name at the top of each card—along with relevant information, such as page numbers. For example:

Schelling and Starr, Chapter 2, pp. 201–203. “The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor Empire.” It was just a chunk of Western Europe around what is today France, under the rule of Charlemagne. Maybe use direct quote.

If you’re taking notes using computer files stacked in a folder, you’ll be able to compile several “note cards” in the same file, with one file for each source. With that approach, be careful to name each source as part of your file name.

Working with Paraphrases

Quite often, as you work with potential sources, you’ll come across a “gem” that may find a home in your essay. Most often, that will mean paraphrasing one or more passages from the source. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, as long as you understand the guidelines for paraphrasing. Failure to follow those guidelines may lead you to plagiarism, and you definitely want to avoid plagiarism.

The basic idea in paraphrasing is making sure you convey the meaning of an author’s words using your own words. That can mean using synonyms or even rearranging sentences or phrases. But the acid test in every case is carefully comparing your paraphrase with the original to make sure that you’ve captured the essence using alternative words and sentences. That’s about it in a nutshell, as long as you cite the original source at the end of your paraphrase. Now would be a good time to proceed to Purdue University’s discussion of paraphrasing at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/index.php?category_id=3&sub_category_id=8&article_id=100.

A Five-Paragraph Essay Using Researched Sources

Please consult Lesson 1, Assignment 3 and review the outline for a proposed essay on large-scale corporate farming versus localized organic farming. Then carefully read this final draft of the essay.

Topic: Corporate Agri-Business versus Organic Farming Title: It’s Time for a New Agricultural Revolution   (Introduction) Commercials on TV and images on food packaging make it seem like our food arrives at the supermarket from idealized country settings. Cows graze in green pastures. Farmer Jones rides a tractor, wearing a beat-up straw hat. Junior is feeding free-ranging chickens. Mom is out back, weeding the family vegetable garden. But these images are beyond misleading. In fact, most of our food comes from enormous corporate-owned farms. These giant operations, referred to collectively as agri-business, produce most of the world’s grain crops, such as wheat and corn, as well as animal produce, including meat, eggs, and dairy products. Now, the main argument in favor of large-scale corporate farming is efficiency and low retail cost. However, when we take a closer look at the matter, another picture emerges. For, as we examine the evidence, we find that the advantages of large-scale corporate farming, as opposed to local organic farming, are far outweighed by its costs to the environment and human well-being. (Body-1) Large-scale, corporate, for-profit factory farms are ecologically damaging in several ways. To begin with, petroleum-based factory farming contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. According to a UN report, agricultural practices account for 18 percent of the total annual greenhouse gas emissions (Massey & Ulmer, 2010). That’s bad news in and of itself, but it’s by no means the whole story. As has been established in numerous studies, petroleum-based fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides are environmental hazards (Scientific American, 2009; Farrell, 2007). (Body-2) Above all, “petroleum-chemical” agriculture damages and depletes precious organic soils that have sustained human life for many centuries. You may not realize that it takes many years to create an inch of organic soil. But it does. As we learn from many sources, soil is the foundation of land-based agriculture. Plants need sunlight, water, and the nutrients found in living soil in order to thrive. In fact, it’s entirely accurate to say that, on land surfaces, soil is life. Sadly, a lot of that life is ebbing away as a result of erosion, deforestation, and desertification related to corporate agri-business. For example, in the United States, according to a University of Michigan study, agriculture accounts for 66 percent of soil loss (U. of Michigan, 2010). In that context, erosion and run-off from factory farming contaminates steams, ponds, and underground aquifers that people rely on for fresh water. (Body-3) There’s an answer to all this that reminds us that sometimes older is better. There’s substantial evidence that reliance on locally based organic farming is good for the environment simply because it’s sustainable. In France and other European countries, for example, traditional agricultural practices have allowed rich soils to be nurtured and sustained for centuries (Ikerd, 1999). But that’s not all. Organic farming techniques provide ways to control predatory insects and other forms of plant blight without recourse to toxic chemicals (Pleasant, 2011). And, in that light, it should be understood that, by comparison with factory farming, organic farming can yield the same or superior levels of food production per acre. To be sure, organic farming can be labor-intensive. But that fact can also be flipped on its head to remind us that more people can find fulfilling, socially important ways to make a living. And, finally, let’s not forget that protecting the natural environment and raising the varieties of crops characteristic of organic farms helps maintain local natural environments that favor regional biodiversity. (Conclusion) Arguably, locally based organic farming supports individual and community well-being in at least three ways. Perhaps first and foremost, an agricultural system based on local organic farming will help fight climate change. Large-scale corporate farming, dependent as it is on petroleum and petroleum by-products, is responsible for a hefty contribution to carbon dioxide greenhouse gases. In no small measure, that’s a result of shipping foods over long distances, burning many tons of carbon dioxide-emitting fuels. Thus, simply by increasingly “going local,” public health can be improved by way of cleaner air and less contaminated water. Second, it should be understood that factory-farm produce comes from soil that has been leached of its inherent nutrients. As some have noted, such “soils” are little more that mineral sponges. Season after season, these dead soils are filled up with artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that, in turn, are washed away to contaminate streams, ponds, and underground aquifers. By contrast, organic food is full of the nutrients provided by healthy soils. Finally, an agricultural system based on local organic farming can serve to re-humanize communities in much the same way that, once upon a time, local markets allowed people to interact with friends and neighbors. References  Farrell, R. R. (2007, June 10). Factory farms: Are they good for consumers. Retrieved from: http://realtruth.org/articles/070601-004-ff.html Ikerd, J. (1999). Organic agriculture faces the specialization of production systems: Specialized systems and the economical stakes. Retrieved from http://web.missouri.edu/ikerdj/papers/FRANCE.html Massey, R., & Ulmer, A. (2010). Agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions. University of Missouri: Commercial agriculture program. Retrieved from http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G310 Pleasant. B. (2011). Organic pest control: What works, what doesn’t. Mother Earth News.June/July. Retrieved from http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/organic-pest-control-zm0z11zsto.aspx#axzz2Xz8lAhy4 University of Michigan: Global change. (2010, January 4). Land degradation. Retrieved from http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/land_deg/land_deg.html Unknown Author. (2009, July 20). How fertilizers harm the earth more than they help your lawn. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-fertilizers-harm-earth

Research Paper Formatting

There are two commonly used citation styles for research papers–MLA and APA. The Modern Language Association (MLA) style conventions are typically applied in literary criticism and other fields of the humanities. You can and should become at least familiar with MLA style conventions. To do this, consult https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.

However, increasingly, the citation conventions established by the American Psychological Association (APA) are recommended for nearly all academic papers. For this reason, this course focuses on APA citation conventions. The essay you’ve just read, “It’s Time for a New Agricultural Revolution,” is written using APA citation conventions.

Review that essay, this time paying close attention to the in-text citations and the reference citations. Next, access http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa.

The eleven pages of this site constitute an APA “style bible” you can use for this course as well as for any other course you may take that requires one or more research papers. In that regard, you may, in the future, need to understand how to prepare an abstract and a running head. These are not specific issues for this course. You will not be required to write an abstract or follow the rules for setting up a running head. However, simply for your own edification you will be wise to access https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.

As you study the Cornell guide, note the following:

· For every in-text citation, there must be a full citation in the reference list.

· The references cited in the sample essay emphasize electronic sources. That’s the case because Internet sources are increasingly referred to in student research papers. But as you read through the writing lab guide, you’ll discover a guide for citing a wide range of sources, from journal articles to motion pictures.

· Take special note of these formatting rules:

· An in-text citation usually includes the author(s) and the date.

· Citations in the reference list must be listed in alphabetical order–as shown in the five-paragraph essay.

· Only the first letter of a title or subtitle is written in upper case.

· The first line of a reference citation is flush left. All following material is indented 5 to 7 spaces (called a “hanging indent”) as shown above.

· For a cited page number use the abbreviation “p.”. For multiple pages use “pp.”

· Titles may be written in italics or underlined.

A Final Source Note

To review, enhance, and summarize seven steps in the research process, you’ll benefit from consulting this Cornell University website:

http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill1.htm

Apply and compare this information as you use the Ashworth College Library Services and Learning Resource Center.