Research Strategies: Finding your Way through the Information Fog: A key to the study questions
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1. How do traditional societies handle information?
Traditional societies are essentially oral. Knowledge is passed down by speech and demonstration. The knowledge base is carefully guarded and not often changed so that it may be conveyed from generation to generation reliably.
2. How did the invention of writing change the pre-writing methods by which a society handled information?
Knowledge could be preserved in print, so there was less need for passing it down orally. Because the information was in a more secure form, more attention could be paid to discovery. Keepers of the written documents were elites in society.
3. Name several significant changes to the world of information brought about by the printing press.
Multiple copies meant better preservation and the opportunity for information to get into the hands of more people. The elitism of knowledge keepers was diminished and discovery became more possible.
New elitisms formed: Universities and Publishers.
4. In the process of publishing information, what is “gatekeeping” and why is it significant?
Gatekeeping is the decision making process traditional publishers go through to determine whether or not they wish to publish an author’s manuscript. The decision is usually based on content (quality, suitability to that publisher’s program) and money (will it sell). It is significant, because it can help to guard the quality of what is being published, but it can also censor good works out of bias or perceived lack of profitability.
5. In what ways is the creation of the World Wide Web a “revolution” for information?
The gatekeeping function of traditional publishing is much more seldom seen. People are able to publish freely, thus giving us more access to information than any generation before us. But quality on the WWW is very uneven, forcing readers more and more into the role of becoming their own gatekeepers.
6. Name some advantages of e-books. Can you think of drawbacks?
Versatility, portability, price (sometimes), ability to search within content, and the opportunity to publish your own works cheaply or for free. Drawbacks relate to the limitations for saving and annotating e-books (such limitations are generally placed by publishers).
7. What is peer review in journal article publishing?
Article manuscripts from authors are sent to other scholars in the field (peers) who review them and determine suitability for publication in the journal. Peers may call for revisions or even reject a manuscript.
8. What is the open access movement and why was it seen as necessary?
“Open Access” means that information is published online and access is provided for free. The term is generally applied to journal articles. The movement is largely driven by the high cost of journals. In particular, much research that appears in journal articles was originally funded by public granting organizations, and the subscriptions to these journals are often paid for by publicly funded universities, resulting in double payment. The open access movement has been able, in a number of situations, to get mandates that articles based on publicly funded research must be made open access within a number of months of their original journal publication. Some universities are also demanding open access availability of all articles published by their professors.
9. Where is the best place to find government documents?
While government documents may be found in print and electronic form through academic libraries, a great number of them are now available through the WWW.
10. What are the advantages and limitations of Web 2.0 for information?
Connectivity and collaboration can create better ideas. But if those sharing ideas are not skilled or knowledgeable, the contribution of Web 2.0 may be limited.
11. Why is not all “information” actually informative?
Information must “inform.” This means that it must have the quality and reliability needed actually to advance our knowledge. Data that does not do this is not informative.
1. Give a brief definition of “scholarship.”
In the broadest sense, scholarship is a method of discovery and problem-solving that uses well-defined methods. A scholar is someone who employs these methods to advance knowledge by meeting challenges and working toward solutions.
2. As a means to describe the inside world of scholarship explain these words: epistemology, metanarrative, and methodology.
Epistemology: Epistemology deals with the knowledge base within which a scholar in a certain discipline works. Every area of study has a base of knowledge upon which it relies. Epistemology deals with the whys of the knowledge base – Why this knowledge and not some other types of knowledge? Why do you trust it? Why do some scholars successfully add to the knowledge base while others fail to have their work accepted?
Metanarrative: The term “metanarrative” comes from root words meaning “that which accompanies your narrative, your story.” All of us live a narrative day by day, but your metanarrative explains the daily narrative, defining both you and the culture you live in.
Methodology: A set of prescribed procedures for doing research.
3. Briefly describe what is meant by each of the following:
a. Authority Is Constructed and Contextual.
When looking at research resources we must recognize that their authority is “constructed” (recognized at different levels of trust by various reader/hearers and their communities) and “contextual” (so that the trustworthiness of a piece of information may well depend on how or where the information is used).
b. Information Creation as a Process.
For a scholar, how a piece of work has been assembled is often as important as what appears in the final form. The scholar wants to know the amount and kinds of research that went into someone’s book or article, as well as the amount of gatekeeping required before it. This determines its level of authority.
c. Information Has Value.
We can measure value in lots of ways: what something costs, how important something is to its owner, what contribution something can make to society, and so on. If we just look at price, we miss the importance of the value of information to ourselves and our society. Knowing the various parameters of value (price, importance, significance for society, restrictions of copyright) is very important to being able to do research with your eyes open.
d. Research as Inquiry.
Research is a problem-addressing exercise an inquiry that takes you from an issue to a potential resolution. It is not just compilation from your sources.
e. Scholarship as Conversation.
For scholars, the active give and take of knowledge as it develops is the very essence of how it all works. It’s a conversation among participants who are all on a quest. They may not agree with one another, but that’s part of the process. Scholarship is not static. It’s a conversation.
f. Searching as Strategic Exploration.
Searching for information is not straightforward. It requires planning and strategy in order to make it successful.
1. What three things do you need to seek if you want to do research well?
a. You need an intense desire to do a brilliant project, not just an average one; b. you need to take your time and plan your research as astrategy; and c. you need to become a friend to structure.
2. Name four elements of “inadequate research.” Why is each an enemy of “great” research?
a. Inadequate research assumes that the task is merely to gather data and synthesize it. This is a barrier to analysis and problem solving.
b. Inadequate research deals in generalities and surveys. This makes it an enemy of depth and analysis.
c. Inadequate research asks no analytical questions and makes no pretense of advancing knowledge. Thus it reports on the past rather than making a contribution to the future.
d. Inadequate research is boring. This results in a less than committed researcher and a professor who gives low grades.
3. Define a “working knowledge” of your topic and explain why it’s important to have one.
You have a working knowledge of a topic when you can talk about it for one minute without repeating yourself. It isn’t complete knowledge, but it’s enough to tell you what the topic entails, what itsboundaries are, even what some of its controversies, mysteries and dangers might be.
4. What is a “reference source?”
It is a resource that provides concise and authoritative information on virtually a topic. Reference sources will generally appear in the form of dictionaries or encyclopedias on general or specific topics. As well, handbooks, atlases—in fact, any tool that involves looking up brief information—may be found in a library reference collection. Reference sources can be in print or online formats.
5. What should we do with Wikipedia?
Use it with discernment. Don’t rely just on Wikipedia. What you read at any one moment might be a sabotage of an article (to be corrected in a couple of hours) or something that is just wrong and hasn’t yet been noticed. Compare what you read in Wikipedia with other, traditionally published, reference sources.
6. What are the steps to finding a good research question?
Narrow your topic to one aspect. Identify controversies or questions related to your narrowed approach.
7. Formulate a definition for genuine research.
Genuine research addresses a problem calling for analysis.
8. Describe the difference between a research question and a thesis statement. Why is the former often a safer approach?
A thesis statement is a tentative answer to a research question, akin to a hypothesis in scientific research. Research questions help you keep a more open mind about your issue. A thesis statement may lead you not to give enough consideration to alternative solutions.
9. Describe the following types of bad research questions: The fuzzy question, the multi-part question, the open-ended question, the question that will not fly.
- Fuzzy – Question is not clear enough to make it possible to answer.
- Multi-part – Several questions instead of one.
- Open-ended – Questions that encourage a number of different outcomes instead of a single solution.
- Question that will not fly – Question for which there is no way to enlist good evidence to answer it.
10. Why do you need a preliminary outline early in the research process?
The preliminary outline creates a road map, enabling you to follow a clear path and get research done efficiently and effectively.
1. What is a “database?” Name a few examples of familiar databases.
A database is any collection of data that can be retrieved using organized search procedures. Phone directories, library catalogs, journal databases, etc.
2. What is a “database record?”
It is a description that stands in the place of actual content when you search a database. That is, you are not actually searching the content but descriptions of the content.
3. In keyword searching, what strong ability of computers is used?
The ability to find words.
4. What is a “truncation” or “wildcard?” Give an example along with the appropriate symbol.
Truncation (sometimes inaccurately called wildcard), allows you, with many keyword searches, to type part of a word, then add an asterisk (*) or sometimes a question mark (?) or dollar sign ($), so that the search engine will look for every word that begins with the letters you typed. E.g., interact* will ask the search engine to search for interact, interacting, interaction, even interactivity. You can also sometimes do middle truncation (the real meaning of “wildcards”), in which truncation is done within a word (e.g., Wom*n for Woman or Women).
5. Explain the “OR command” in Boolean searching and indicate in what types of searches it works best.
The “OR command” allows you to search for two or more related words in a database without the requirement that both or all words be present in any one result. The OR search is generally done to include synonyms or related words so that multiple searches will not be needed.
6. Explain the “AND command” in Boolean searching and indicate in what types of searches it works best.
The “AND command” is used between two or more words, all of which must appear in each search result. This search works best when you are narrowing your search focus.
7. Explain the “NOT command” in Boolean searching and indicate in what types of searches it works best.
The “NOT command” is used to screen out unwanted words from a search. It works best as a second stage in searching when you find a number of irrelevant results characterized by the same unwanted word.
8. Some databases will allow you to leave out the Boolean AND, and just input keywords with spaces between them. In other databases, if you do this the computer program will understand that you are constructing a __________________.
Phrase search
9. Why do words by themselves have no definite meaning? How do they get a meaning?
Words are capable of a variety of meanings. Meaning of a word is only established when that word is placed in a context.
10. All data comes within a _________________.
Hierarchy
11. Explain an “information hierarchy.” Choose two or three topics and illustrate how each fits into one or more hierarchies (a diagram works best for this).
Information is organized in hierarchies, that is in arrangements that begin with broader categories which in turn split into narrower and narrower categories. Examples (any variety of examples are possible):
12. Regarding hierarchies, in research you must know where you are ____ _____ _______________.
In the hierarchy
13. What does it mean to say that keywords are “flat?”
Keywords are flat – simply appearing where they appear without revealing the depths of context and meaning – so that keyword search engines bring up all occurrences of a word, regardless of what surrounding meaning or definition is present.
14. How do clustering search tools like Yippy help to resolve the problem the flatness of keywords?
Such tools group results within categories, thus suggesting contexts or hierarchies within which those keywords may function.
1. What is “metadata”?
Metadata is descriptive terminology that enables more intelligent search of databases beyond the use of keywords.
2. What is a “record,” and how does it relate to metadata?
Metadata comes in the form of a data “record,” that is, a short description of the data. If the data were books in a library, the metadata would be the “records” that describe each book, and the records would be what the catalog’s search engine would look through, not the books themselves.
3. Why doesn’t the actual title of the book matter a great deal when a cataloger attaches a controlled vocabulary term to it?
Controlled vocabularies describe what a book is actually about rather than relying on terminology you might find in a book title.
4. What are the advantages of controlled vocabularies?
Controlled vocabularies are a good solution to the problem of retrieval. It is a real challenge (and sometimes impossible) to input all the right terminology so that the database will deliver to us in a single search the information we need. If we wanted a list of books, for example, about euthanasia, it would be nice to have a predetermined word for the concept of euthanasia so we could type it into the search engine and get back a list of all the euthanasia books regardless of the wordings of the actual book titles. This is what a controlled vocabulary is designed for.
5. Explain the method of starting with a keyword search in order to identify controlled vocabulary subject headings.
Do a keyword search in a library catalog, find a book that is relevant to what you are seeking, click on its title and open up the full catalog record. Then scroll down to the subject headings, which are hyperlinked. Find a relevant subject heading and click on it to get more books on the subject.
6. Define the following:
Thesaurus - a guide to subject headings that not only identifies authorized subjects but also can lead you to broader, narrower or related terms that are also authorized.
Descriptor – another word used to refer to a subject heading
Browse function - “Browse” generally involves working with controlled vocabulary terms (subjects,
authors, titles, etc.) from alphabetized lists of headings.
7. Is it possible to search controlled vocabularies and keywords at the same time? When would you want to do so, if it is possible?
Yes, in some databases. You would want to use keywords to narrow down to specific aspects of a subject heading or to use a subject heading to find all the results within a keyword search that are actually on the topic you are searching rather than merely using your keywords in side issues.
1. What is discovery search? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Discovery search is a search engine that allows you to search an index of several databases at once. Typically this includes both book and journal article searching. The advantage is the ability to do a single search and get a variety of result types (as opposed to having to search several databases separately). The disadvantage is that the user is generally left with only the keyword as a search tool. More sophisticated features like controlled vocabularies, are not useable.
2. In a library catalog, when would you use controlled vocabulary subject headings, and when would you use keywords?
If your topic is a reasonably standard one, you will probably do best with a controlled vocabulary subject heading search. It’s safer in that you know you will find most books that are available on the topic. If your topic is not a standard one or if it combines a couple of subject disciplines you may want to go for a keyword approach. Keywords tend to do best when targeting specific and/or non-traditional approaches to topics.
3. How can hierarchies help you when you are searching a library catalog for a topic?
If you can’t find books on your specific topic, knowing what broader category that topic is part of can help you target broader based books that may have a chapter or section on your topic.
4. Why is it futile to believe that the electronic full text of every book you want will be available to you for free?
Money. Publishers and authors want to be paid for their work. Unless there is some alternate form of funding, users will need to pay for most e-books rather than receiving them open-access (for free).
5. How are journal databases created, and what are they intended to do?
Journal databases are created by the formulation of records describing articles in a specific list of journals. As each issue of each journal comes out, records are created for its articles, and these form the data that makes up the database. Journal databases are intended to help users identify journal articles on various topics or to lead users to the full text of specific articles.
6. Explain the difference between “data” and “interface.”
The interface is the software that runs the database, including the screen format and design. The data is the material you are searching for by using the search interface.
7. Identify each part of the following journal citation: Badke, William. (2010). Why information literacy is invisible.Communications in Information Literacy 4(2), 129-141.
Badke, William – Author of the article
(2010) – Date of publication
Why information literacy is invisible – Title of the article
Communications in Information Literacy – Title of the journal in which the article is found
4(2) – Volume and issue number
129-141 – Page numbers where the article is found
8. In journal database searching you should be prepared for_____________. How does such preparation help you?
Frustration. When we are prepared for obstacles, our frustration level is lower than if those obstacles came as a surprise.
9. Why should you resist the urge to fill the search box with words?
In an AND search, the more search terms you add, the more potentially relevant results you eliminate.
10. What are the advantages of thinking before you search?
In order to save yourself difficulty (getting too many or too few results; missing the target) you need to predetermine what search words will identify your topic in the minimum number of words.
11. Explain the procedure of starting with a subject heading and adding keywords. Why is it often better to stage (facet) your search with subject headings and keywords than simply to do a one-stage keyword search?
It is very difficult to target exactly what you want in a single search. You can identify a subject heading through a thesaurus or subjects link, do the search, then, if there are too many results or the results are not focused narrowly enough, you can add keywords to target your topic more specifically. This will save you having to wade through lots of irrelevant results to find the ones that best suit your needs.
12. Many journal articles are available in electronic “full text” format. What are some of the advantages and difficulties with accessing full text?
The advantages are that you can have the full text of articles right in the database. From there it can usually be saved, e-mailed or downloaded to a bibliographic manager. The difficulties are that full text is not always available or it is available in another database and thus must be locate.
1. What is the Internet? How does it relate to the World Wide Web?
In simplest terms it is a worldwide computer network (or series of networks). The WWW is a subset ofthe Internet that operates using the conventions of http and html or similar language.
2. Why are free journals not a prominent feature in the academic world?
Money. Most academic journals require funding in order to be produced, and there is a strong demand for profit among many academic journal publishers.
3. What’s the difference between a scholarly search engine and ordinary search engines? What are the names of some scholarly search engines and what do they provide?
A scholarly search engine searches only for scholarly literature available on the WWW, much of it peer reviewed. Examples include Google Scholar (journal articles, book excerpts, conference proceedings, academic websites), BASE (humanly selected academic material, but only what is open-access on the WWW), Microsoft Academic Search (similar to but smaller than Google Scholar), CiteSeerXx (scientific information).
4. What are a few of the top search engines on the Net?
Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com
5. What are “subject trees” on the Internet, and how can they help you?
Information hierarchies form tree-like structures. There are certain sites on the Internet where you can search down various hierarchies or subject trees from more general categories to specific ones.
6. What are Internet portals, and how can they help you?
Sites that serve as introductions to important Internet sites on a subject. Advantage is that someone has evaluated the websites, so you have a better chance of finding material that you can actually use (though your own critical thinking skills still need to be engaged).
7. What is the hidden Internet? How do you find information within it?
Any information carried on the WWW that can’t easily be found by a search engine. If it’s a password protected site, you need to be authorized or you’ll need to pay to get access. Many searchable databases can be located either by search engine or by hierarchical searches on the Net.
8. What are the key means by which you can evaluate the quality of information on Internet sites? What should you check first when evaluating a website? Why is more evaluation required for Internet sites than for regularly published books and articles?
Find out first who produced the site you are looking at and check for qualifications. Look for signs of scholarship or lack thereof. Evaluate content for sense-making and evidence.
1. Summarize for yourself the research strategies covered so far.
Answers will vary somewhat. See Research Strategies, section 8.1
2. What is ERIC, what kinds of documents does it provide access to, and what subject areas does it cover best?
ERIC is a clearinghouse that makes available studies, reports, curriculum helps, etc. produced by educational institutions. It includes unpublished studies and also indexes a number of journal articles. It covers best the subjects surrounding education, thus the social sciences.
3. Where do you find the ERIC database? In what format is the text of most ERIC documents from the early 1990s to the present?
Available freely online (http://www.eric.ed.gov/) or via journal database software like EBSCOHost.
4. What is the Eric Thesaurus?
A directory to subject headings (descriptors) used by ERIC
5. What’s the difference between ED and EJ in ERIC?
ED refers to ERIC documents. EJ refers to ERIC journals.
6. How useful is the Internet in finding government documents?
The Internet is very useful in finding many government documents. Not everything you need in government information, however, is on the Net. Some is online and some is only accessible in print. Certain libraries are designated as depository collections that receive print versions of government information.
7. What’s the main problem with locating doctoral dissertations? What avenues can you follow to get your hands on one if you want it?
The ProQuest Dissertations &Theses Database offers about a million dissertations to those libraries that can afford it. Otherwise, dissertations, as unpublished documents can be hard to find. You can try online or use interlibrary loan.
8. What kind of help can you expect from a librarian as opposed to the help you get from a professor?
If you need to use almost any database, a librarian is likely to offer more help than anyone else can. And if you are working on a highly specialized topic, a librarian has the skills to manipulate that topic and actually help you advance beyond where you are. Consult your professor if you are unsure of what to do or what is being demanded, if you have thought of an approach to an assignment which may not be exactly what the professor is asking for, or if you are stuck somewhere in the research process and need advice to help you get unstuck.
9. If you can’t find books or articles by a person you are researching, what other option do you have?
Find books or articles about the person you are researching
10. If you are doing research on a person (like a president of the US), would writings by that person be considered primary or a secondary sources?
Primary
1. What’s the difference between connoisseur and glutton reading?
A glutton absorbs information without thinking about it a great deal. A connoisseur reads analytically.
2. In what way do you need to “be ruthless” in research reading?
You can’t read everything. Get to the important stuff quickly and leave the rest.
3. What are the four steps to discovering the overall message of a book quickly?
a. Look at title page, preface, foreword
b. Check out the table of contents
c. Look over the index
d. Give the book a run-through (beginning and end of the book, beginning and end of each chapter, headings within chapters, etc.
4. When you get to the fifth step (actually reading material you need), explain the best way to go about it.
Read like a connoisseur. Ask constant questions of what you are reading.
5. What is an abstract, and how can it help you?
An abstract is a short summary of a larger work (usually a journal article). It can tell you enough about the article to determine whether or not you want to read it and to provide a roadmap into the article itself.
6. What are “key propositions” and how does finding them help the reading process?
Key propositions are statements that an author believes to be true. Since such propositions form the skeleton of a book or article, finding them can help you understand the message the author is conveying.
7. What’s the secret to avoiding the trap of taking too many notes that you will later not use?
The key to this problem is to have a good research question and preliminary outline as soon as possible in the research process.
8. What are some of the risks for those who take most of their notes by scanning, copying or printing their sources?
They tend not to interact with the material very deeply. Later, when they have to interact with it, they may not remember why they copied it, and they will have lost crucial time when they could have been developing ideas from an initial deeper reading of the material.
9. What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking notes using the methods of quoting, summarizing and sentence rewriting?
Quoting: Advantages are that you won’t have to go back to the source to find a quotation; you have an accurate record of what the book said, and you interact fairly deeply with the material in the process of recording it. Disadvantages are that it can be laborious, and you have to be careful not to take things out of context.
Summarizing: Advantages are that it’s quicker than quoting, and you have to think about the material in order to summarize it. Disadvantages are that it may be difficult to summarize complex material, you will have no direct quotations to use, and any misunderstanding of the original will remain in your summary.
Sentence rewriting: Use only to help yourself understand difficult material. Do not use as a main note-taking or writing method, because it too easily turns into plagiarism.
10. What are the 4 further instructions the author gives about key elements of note-taking?
Leave no bibliographic information out of your notes; put quotation marks around things you are quoting, if you are summarizing; work hard to use your own words; and, record your own insights in your notes with some sort of signal (like square brackets and your initials) to indicate that the insights are yours and not from your source.
11. Define plagiarism and explain why it is such a serious offence.
Plagiarism is misrepresentation – leading the reader to believe that someone else’s words or thoughts are your own. Plagiarism is an academic crime because it is the theft of someone else’s creativity and because what you are presenting is not actually your own work.
1. Write out an explanation of the “register method” of note organization, including a good description of each of the parts.
Your notes are in a single computer file or bound in a binder. Your bibliography is kept as a file separately. Create a document of your outline. Put page numbers of your notes into relevant places in your outline if working in hard copy. For either hard copy or online applications, put symbols relevant to headings in your outline into your notes to create a cross-reference system between your outline and your notes.
2. If compiling your resources together is easy, what is hard? Why?
Resource gathering is easy. Retrieval is hard. The biggest problem most students face is that they’ve ended up with many pages of notes and printouts, but now that they want to write the research paper, they can’t retrieve the data they need from these resources.
2. In using a computer as your note taking device, what options do you have for retrieval?
Print your notes or use the Find function in your word processor to locate relevant portions of your notes.
4. Why go to all this trouble to organize notes and establish retrieval procedures?
Simply because it saves time and alleviates writing anxiety.
1. What are the three steps to take in first establishing an outline?
First formulate a research question, second formulate a preliminary outline, and third organize your outline headings.
2. In a research paper or report, what should you cover first?
Descriptive, background information
3. Explain the longitudinal and cross-sectional approach to outlining discussion of more than one view on an issue. Try each method with the following outline elements:
The longitudinal method first discusses one view on the issue in its entirety, then the other view. The cross-sectional approach breaks each view into its component parts, discussing one part in both views, then moving on to the next, and so on.
Topic: Physician Assisted Suicide
The points of view: Seeing it as a beneficial aid to sufferers vs. seeing it as wrong morally.
The subsections under each view—The problem of unbearable suffering, the wishes of the patient,
the risk that we are playing God.
Longitudinal
I. Introduction
II. Beneficial Aid to Sufferers
III. Morally Wrong
IV. Conclusion
Cross-Sectional
I. Introduction
II. Unbearable Suffering
a. Beneficial Aid to Sufferers
b. Morally Wrong
III. Wishes of the Patient
a. Beneficial Aid to Sufferers
b. Morally Wrong
IV. Risk of Playing God
a. Beneficial Aid to Sufferers
b. Morally Wrong
V. Conclusion
[Note that outlines may vary somewhat. The outlines above show support of the “morally wrong” view, since it is consistently covered last].
4. What are the two purposes of introductions?
To provide background (working knowledge) to the reader and to state the research question / thesis statement
5. Why describe before you analyze?
Because you need to provide background before the reader can analyze the situation well. Because every view needs to be heard before you criticize it.
6. What are some things to remember if you want your paper/report to flow logically so that your reader can follow it?
Stay focused. Don’t flit around. Ask for each paragraph: “Is this paragraph in the right place in my paper (i.e., does it match the heading it’s under)? Does this paragraph contribute to the solution for my research question?”
7. What’s a “bulge” in a research paper or report?
It’s a chunk of information that has little relationship to the paper topic. The researcher worked for a long time on something that, as it turned out, didn’t really relate to the final paper. But no one wants to admit to a big waste of time, so the researcher simply plugged the less-than-relevant material into the paper anyway.
8. What is the mark of an educated person?
The mark of an educated person is not the length of words and sentences used but the ability to communicate complicated information in plain language.
9. Explain types of flawed argumentation.
- Misrepresenting authorities. Does not represent that person accurately. Quotes out of context, suppresses information that would give a more honest picture, and so on.
- Arguments from origins. Determining the value of an argument, not on its own merits but on its source.
- Arguments from insufficient evidence.
10. When should you not use quotations? Do you agree with the author’s position that your quotations should be few? Why or why not?
When you want to back up your view with that of a prominent scholar who agrees with you. When something someone has written is catchy or memorable in its wording. [Responses to rest of the question will vary, depending on the respondent].
11. Why would you use “notes” or “citations” in research paper/ report?
To document where you got specific information or a quotation. To state further bibliography. To list sources that agree with you. To raise and answer possible objections. To deal with a related side issue.
12. What should you avoid in a conclusion?
Avoid flowery, sentimental, or overly long conclusions.