Chapter 4
Using Communication Research Sources
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Outline |
Concepts |
| I. Approaching
Research Materials A. The Why? Research Uses Past Work to Develop Arguments |
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--premises for argument |
premise: a statement in a logical argument that is the foundation for others drawn from it |
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--evidence for argument --helping balance reliance on authority and empirical data B. The What? Purposeful Library Research-- Information to Get --definitions of key concepts and variables --ways concepts and variables have been measured and studied --summary statements about the subject --classic research studies --research that shows what methods to use --research that shows what mistakes to avoid C. The When? Guiding Yourself with a Research Outline II. The How? Managing Research Materials A. Techniques for Bibliographic Research |
Einstein syndrome: a misguided approach in which researchers fail to connect their "sudden breakthroughs" with lessons from others (discarding previous lessons as irrelevant) |
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1. Mastering the Library 2. Practical Skills in Bibliographic Research |
plagiarism: the act of using another another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source annotations: additional explanations, comments, evaluations, or criticisms to help understand material |
| B. Library Research Strategies 1. General to Specific (beginning with books and reviews to find key primary articles) 2. Specific to General (beginning with a few specific articles to track down other key articles) III. The Where? The Key Library Tools for Scholarly Materials |
keywords: terms under which information about the topic may be found |
| A. Hierarchical Systems for Books and Collections B. Keyword Indices 1. Computer Searches and Databases a. CD-ROM Sources b. On-line Databases c. Using Keywords (steps in electronic searches) 1.) select keywords from the problem statement 2.) develop alterna- tive lists of descriptor terms 3.) combine keywords 4.) undertake online activity 2. Indices and Abstracts IV. Using the Library A. Conducting the Library Session B. Troubleshooting in the Library 1. When the source is unavailable 2. When there is "no information on my topic" 3. When the journals are missing 4. When the material is technical and complex V. Using the Internet A. Elements of the Internet |
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| 1. E-Mail | E-mail: a system for exchanging messages with other Internet users |
| 2. Newsgroups | newsgroups: discussion groups composed of
Internet users who share a common interest IRC (Internet Relay Chat): discussion groups in which participants hold "conversations" in nearly real time exchanges |
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3. FTP
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FTP: "file transfer protocol," which allows Internet users to move files from one computer to the next |
| 4. Telnet | Telnet: permits Internet users to log on to a computer at some other location and run applications on it |
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5. World Wide Web |
World Wide Web: the collection of computers around the world that organizes information using hypermedia (information approaches in which each page of information can contain embedded references to images, sound, and other pages of information) |
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Conducting an Internet Session --basics of using a browser |
browsers: programs that permit users to search and display things on the Internet |
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1. Surfing the Internet for Research Information --using Yahoo! to find relevant web sites --saving Internet documents and images --using bookmark files 2. Using Search Engines a. automated search systems e.g., Yahoo!, Alta Vista |
URL: "Uniform Resource Locator," the address of an Internet site |
| b. gophers | gophers: a collection of menus or catalog listings on a topic |
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c. meta- search systems e.g. Dogpile, Inference Find, Northern Light, ProFusion |
meta-search systems: tools that search a host of other search engines to find useful information |