Given that this is course is taught exclusively on line, you need to read and understand material that is presented. Please read Chapters 9 & 10 as indicated on the syllabus and then submit the five most important items found in each chapter. Large essa

chapter_10_-_research.ppt

Home >English homework help >Given that this is course is taught exclusively on line, you need to read and understand material that is presented. Please read Chapters 9 & 10 as indicated on the syllabus and then submit the five most important items found in each chapter. Large essa

Researching Your Speech

What Is Research?

Libraries and Librarians are Our Friends

Librarians have many tricks and shortcuts up their sleeves to make hunting for information easier and faster.
Interacting with librarians and using libraries effectively is the first step to good research.

17 Strategies to Work
With Librarians

A research librarian is extremely knowledgeable about information sources.
You can learn from a librarian and increase your own research skills.
When on reference desk duty, the librarian is available to help; present yourself in person.
A librarian can teach you, but can’t make excuses for late work.
If a librarian is already helping someone else, wait your turn.

Strategies cont.

When a librarian helps you find sources, have the courtesy to look at them.
Research is a process, not an event; allow sufficient time.
The librarian can’t do the work you’re supposed to be doing toward your own grade.
Reference librarians are professional, highly educated information specialists; ask your “stupid” question.
Good research takes time, and interacting with the librarian takes time.

Strategies cont.

Students should expect reasonable questions from the librarian, such as:
“Where have you looked so far?”
“Have you been to a library workshop before?”
Students should approach a librarian sooner rather than later.
If you don’t have a well-defined topic to research, bring a copy of the assignment to show the librarian.

Strategies cont.

Most academic librarians will give in-depth consultations to students by appointment.
Students should be as specific as possible in what they ask for.
Many research questions do not have ready-made or one-stop answers.
Information comes in varying formats.

Research is Fun and Useful

You get to ask questions and actually find answers.
Research can open a world you never knew existed.
Research can lead you to new ideas and activities.
A scholarly investigation into a topic in order to discover, revise, and/or report facts, theories, and applications.

Three Functions of Research

Discovering occurs when people conduct some kind of study and find something completely new.
Revision occurs when people revise existing facts, theories, and applications.
Reporting happens after you accumulate information about a topic and report it to others.

Three End Results of Research

A fact is a truth that is arrived at through the scientific process.
A theory is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon.
Researchers often look for new applications for something that already exists.

Primary Research

Research that is carried out to discover or revise facts, theories and applications, and is reported by the person conducting the research; it is active and creates new knowledge.

Types of Primary Research

Surveys or Questionnaires

Surveys or questionnaires you conduct are a type of primary research in which you collect facts, figures, or opinions.
For a survey, you should ask four questions:
Do you know what you want to ask?
Do you really need to collect data yourself?
Do your participants know the information you want to find out, and will they tell you?
Is your goal generalizable?

Generalizability

When we attempt to survey a small number of people in the hopes of representing a much larger group of people.

Interviews

Interviews you conduct are another type of primary research.
An interview is a conversation in which the interviewer asks a series of questions aimed at learning facts, figures, or opinions from one or more respondents.
An interview differs from a survey because an interviewer can ask follow-up questions to gain greater understanding.

Secondary Research

Research that is carried out to discover or revise facts, theories, and applications, but it is reported by someone not involved in conducting the original research.
You often report the results of someone else’s primary research; it is second-hand information.

Citing Sources Correctly

If, for instance, you refer to a study cited in a book by Mark Weiner, you must cite both Weiner and the study he cited.
A citation shortcut would be unethical.
Omitting Mark Weiner, who did the primary research, cheats him and misrepresents the source you’re using.
When you steal one of his sources, it is as though you’re stealing part of his work.
If you haven’t read the original study cited by Weiner, you shouldn’t give your audience the impression that you have.
It is crucial to use great care in citing sources.

Developing a Research Strategy

Research Strategies

You can think of your research strategy as a map that has your speech as the final destination and the various steps you need to take along the way.
In your public speaking class, the time you have is fairly concrete; the moment your instructor gives you the assigned speech, the proverbial clock is ticking.

Research Time Will be Significant

As you develop your speech, you may realize you want to address an issue that didn’t occur to you earlier.
Perhaps you find you’re missing a key piece of information you need.
You might need to meet once or more with a research librarian.
A good rule is to devote one third of your preparation time to research.
You still have other steps to pursue once your research is done.

Speech Preparation Time

Speech preparation time is the time you devote to sitting down to develop the speech and visual aids.
A common rule of thumb is to do one day of speech preparation per one minute of actual speaking time.
Sometimes things can go wrong both in speaking and in the development of the speech.

Practice Time

“Practice” means actual out-loud rehearsals.
Reading over your speech, or going over it in your mind does not produce the best result.
You will do best when you become comfortable, not only with the text of your speech, but with the actual presentation.

Researching Your Speech

Ensure that You have a Narrowed Speech Topic

Once you have a general idea of your needs, ask yourself a series of questions:
What do I, personally, know about my topic?
Do I have any clear gaps in my knowledge of my topic?
Do I need to conduct primary research for my speech?
What type of secondary research do I need?
Do I need research related to facts?
Do I need research related to theories?
Do I need research related to applications?

Types of Resources Available

Nonacademic/
Popular Press

Many are written at a sixth- to eighth-grade reading level.
Although the actual information in them tends to be limited, they appeal to a general audience.
These texts are often highly opinion oriented and not based on sound academic research.

Common Nonacademic Sources

Nonacademic Books

Many books are now available in electronic form and can be read on electronic readers that are highly portable.
In today’s world, there are three basic types of libraries:
The physical library is available only if you go into the library and find a book using the U.S. Congress catalog system.
Some libraries have both physical and electronic components, much like most college and university libraries, which pay for subscriptions to digital resources that students can then access.
Online libraries contain free, full-text documents.

Periodicals

General interest periodicals include The New Yorker, People, and Reader’s Digest.
Special interest periodicals are magazines and newsletters published for a narrow audience, such as Business Week, Popular Science, and Sports Illustrated.
Newspapers and blogs are nonacademic sources.
Most college and university libraries subscribe to several newspapers either in print or electronic form.
Many blogs are reputable, but most are not.

Encyclopedias

Online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia are useful in finding general information, but might not provide the depth you will need.
Furthermore, it can be edited by anyone, and therefore can contain errors and biased information.

Websites

Websites contain a great deal of information, but often not the information you’re looking for.
You should select an appropriate search engine to find appropriate information.

Academic Sources

Academic information sources have the best probability of providing accurate information that has been reviewed by experts.

Types of Academic Sources

Scholarly Books

Textbooks are written about specific areas of content within fields of academic study.
They tend to be very specifically focused.
They are written at a relatively easy reading level.
Academic books are primarily written for other academics to use in their own research.
They are sometimes called scholarly books.
There are hundreds of thousands of academic books.

Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles are much shorter than books and are a source of the best and most recent research.
They are written for a scholarly audience and take time to read.
Many contain statistics, which require special training for you to understand them.

Computerized Databases

Databases often follow specific themes, such as business, engineering, and medicine.
You can narrow your research and avoid wading through hundreds of research papers that don’t address your needs.

Websites

While there is a wealth of scholarly information on the web, one must pick and choose the best information.
Anyone can post something on the web.
Fortunately, some websites attempt to sort out the irrelevant sources.
http://scholar.google.com is one of those sites

Six Strategies for Conducting Research

We recommend Mary George’s book The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know.

Create a Research Log

A step-by-step account of the process of identifying, obtaining, and evaluating sources for your project.
It helps you keep track of what you’ve read so far.
It can help you from needlessly re-reading things you’ve already read.

Start With Background Information

Start with background information written for the general public, which can help you learn the basic vocabulary of the subject area.
Then you can move to more specific technical or academic information.

Search Your Library’s Computers

Many have online tutorials to help you get started.
Research librarians can direct you to tutorials.
Try to search many different databases.
Try using synonyms for topics; for instance, one synonym for ecology might be biosystem.

Learn to Skim

Start by reading the introductory paragraphs to get an idea what is in the reading.
Look for highlighted, italicized, or bulleted information.
Look for tables, charts, graphs, and figures to see if the content is relevant to your project.
Look at headings and subheadings.
Take good notes while skimming to help you sort out the information.

Read Bibliographies and Reference Pages

Sometimes these pages can lead to even better sources of information.
Backtracking: The process where a research uses a printed bibliography or reference page to find other useful research materials, and then finds those cited materials and reads them for herself or himself.

Ask for Help

Again, librarians are our friends, so let’s use them.
Just remember to be prepared and follow the strategies discussed earlier when working with librarians.

Evaluating Sources

Date of Publication

It can help you locate the most recent information.
It can help you identify historical perspectives, if that’s what you need.

Author’s Name & Credentials

You can learn whether the author is a scholar, or just an opinionated person.
You can figure out who might have a commercial, political, religious, or other bias.

Publisher

You can investigate whether it is an academic press, a mainstream press, or a fringe publisher trying to sound authoritative.
Many websites have an “about” or “FAQ” section that will explain who the publisher is.
This is one of the ways you can guard against using sources that have a hidden agenda, or are not authoritative.

Academic vs.
Nonacademic Source

Academic sources undergo scholarly scrutiny.
You can generally rely on academic sources.
However, some sources are nonacademic even when the author has received a PhD at a university.
One example is “Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus.”
Much of what the author says is at odds with the findings of academic research.

Quality of Bibliography or Reference Page

Are other scholars citing the work you’re reading?
The source you’re reading is considered credible and useful, so the source has some level of perceived credibility by others.
If, in your research, you keep running into mentions of particular studies again and again, perhaps they are studies you should look at yourself.

Citing Sources

Style

Refers to those components or features of a literary composition or oral presentation that have to do with the form of expression rather than the content expressed.
APA style is the reference style of the American Psychological Association.
MLA style is the reference style of the Modern Language Association.
The book goes into more detail on using APA and MLA style.

Citing Sources in a Speech

Types of Speech Citations

Paraphrases: Taking the main ideas from a source and summarizing them using the speaker’s own words and phrasing.
Direct Quotations: Citing the actual words from a source with no changes.

How to Cite Sources

Set up your audience to receive the citation.
Make a general statement that will cause the audience to expect more specific information.
One example is: “Workplace bullying is becoming an increasing problem for U.S. organizations.”
Deliver the source of the information, whether you’ve quoted it directly or you’ve paraphrased it.
Begin with citing the author(s): this is either the individual or the group that did the research in your source.
Next, provide the title of the study, scholarly paper, podcast, or documentary source.
Explain what is being cited; make sure the audience understands what you are supporting by citing the source.

Five Ethical Issues Related to Using Sources

Tips to Avoid Plagiarism

Listing your source on your “Works Cited” page is not enough.
You must clearly tell your audience where you got each piece of your information.
Do your own work, and use your own words.
Allow yourself enough time to research the assignment; no matter how busy you are, not having adequate time to prepare is no excuse for plagiarism.
Keep careful track of your sources; when you’ve read similar information in several places, you might believe the information is “common knowledge,” so use your research strategy and notes to be able to cite your sources.
Take careful notes; be systematic and complete so you won’t plagiarize.

Tips to Avoid Plagiarism cont.

If you use an idea, a quotation, paraphrase, or summary, then credit the source.
Learn how to cite sources correctly both in the body of your paper and in your Works Cited; cite your sources within the speech because otherwise, your audience won’t know whether you did actual research or not.
Quote accurately and sparingly, and be mindful that your speech shouldn’t just be a string of quotations.
Paraphrase carefully; make sure you accurately convey the meanings of the original researcher. As Howard and Taggart explained in Research Matters, “paraphrasing force[s] you to understand your sources and to capture their meaning accurately in original words and sentences.”

Tips to Avoid Plagiarism cont.

Do not patchwrite [patchspeak]. Avoid mixing several references together and arranging paraphrases and quotations to constitute much of the paper.
Summarize, don’t auto-summarize. Electronically reusing the original author’s words without a citation is not an ethical form of paraphrasing.
Do not rework another student’s paper [speech] or buy paper-mill speeches. To do so is to engage in plagiarism.

Academic Fraud

Academic fraud occurs when you try to pass off someone else’s work as your own.

Don’t Mislead your Audience

If you know your source is biased, and you use it anyway without spelling this out for your audience, you are misleading or manipulating your audience.

Give Author Credentials

In a world where anyone can publish online or in print, we must both know the author’s qualifications and pass them along to the audience.

Use Primary Research Ethically

If you tell your survey participants that the results will be anonymous or confidential, make sure you keep that promise.
We must respect the privacy of those who contribute to our research.