Presentation Transcript

1. Research Unit

2. The process In a research project, you investigate and present information on a topic Begin with a subject that interests you Focus your subject
3. Example:
4. Choose your focus and narrow that:
5. How to narrow: Type into your search engine your topic Read different articles to determine what part of your topic interests you Once you find your “focus” use the focus as your search criteria Evaluate your topic: is the topic objective or subjective?
6. topic objective or subjective? Subjective topics are usually based on your personal point of view rather than on established facts “Video games are fun” is an opinion “Video games improve intelligence” is objective because it can be demonstrated regardless of someone’s feelings.
7. Developing research questions A specific research questions will make it easier to find useful information when you research. Questions to help you narrow your topic: How have video games influenced American culture? What is the general question, and how can you define it? How has violence in video games influenced American culture? What are the topic’s parts, and how do they work together? How has the rapid growth of video game technology affected American culture? How has the topic changed over time? How does the influence of video games on American culture compare to the effects of other recent technologies? How is the topic similar to or different from related topics?
8. design the research questionsthat will guide your work. What is wrong with my focus question?
9. Research question: revisited
10. You try…
11. purpose The purpose of most research projects is to give clear, complete information on the research topic***NOT A SUMMARY OF DIFFERENT WEBSITES You also will have a specific purpose for your project, which is to answer your questions about your topic and to present that information to an audience effectively.
12. Audience Your audience is made up of the people who will receive that information. Your audience will be . . . If your form of publication is . . . your teacher and classmates a traditional hard-copy research paper on any topic a letter to the editor of a local newspaper about teens and cell phone use local people interested in the topic of your letter
13. tone The tone you use for your project probably will be relatively formal***No “I”, “In my opinion” “contractions” etc. Cell phone use among teenagers has been increasing at a rapid rate over the past five years. Adolescents have been among the earliest adopters of new cell phone technology such as picture-taking capability and text messaging. I use my cell phone for everything from sending text messages to taking pictures of my friends. I even use it for schoolwork: I download files from Spanish class and listen to them in my spare time.
14. Choose good sources They are relevant, including information that relates directly to your research questions. They are reliable, using only accurate and objective information. They are recent, meaning that sources should be as up to date as possible. They are representative, addressing more than one side of the issue.
15. Evaluating Web pages Check that the site’s author is an expert in that subject area Look for credentials, education, or experience that would give a person expertise in the area of your research topic. Sometimes this will be stated plainly on a page. Sometimes you can find information by clicking a link such as About, Information, or FAQs. Check the outgoing and incoming links. Does this site link to other reliable sites? Click some of the links and see what you can tell about the quality of those sites
16. Wikipedia Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia created by its users. Since its creation in 2001, over seventy-five thousand contributors have created more than 5.2 million articles in over a hundred different languages. With articles about everything from aardvark to azimuth and zinc to zobo, there is a good chance that Wikipedia has information on your research topic.
17. Wikipedia Wikipedia is not a scholarly source. This means that anyone can add information without having to prove that he or she is an expert. Credentials and expertise are not required. Incorrect or misleading information in an article can exist for some timebefore it is removed or corrected by other users. This is why you shouldn’t use Wikipedia or any other wiki as your only source of information on a topic.
18. Your Turn Example: Often called "The Orange Planet" because of its citrus-like hue, Mars was largely ignored until it was first identified as the fifth planet in our solar system by pioneer astronomer and lens-crafter Hans Smickel in 1710.  For almost a century following this discovery, astronomers dismissed the planet as a transient piece of stellar ice and speculated that it would be completely melted by cosmic rays sometime early in the nineteenth century. This hypothesis, obviously, did not prove correct. Today, Mars is recognized as not only the most fascinating planet  in our entire galaxy--the "Galaxy 500," as it is known by scientists--but as a promising vacation spot for interplanetary leisure-makers, those who will likely be able to travel to Mars quickly and conveniently in the very near future. Future travelers to Mars should be advised to take a good parka and several pairs of long underwear, as the planet is now known to get as cold as thirty degrees below zero and to be the site of frequent snowstorms, with snowfalls in northern regions of the planet often averaging eighty inches per Martian winter--a season that lasts the equivalent of two earth years. The snowfall in more extreme portions of Mars is even worse--roughly equivalent to that of Buffalo, New York, making it a challenging destination for the weak-of-heart.  You'd also need a good sunscreen on Mars, especially if you'd planned an excursion to the southern polar regions, an area of the planet where, while scientists speculate the water is quite swimmable, (and a great place to surf with wave peaks averaging a totally gnarly thirty meters high) surface temperatures often soar to a back-blistering 120 degrees Fahrenheit. For years one central question about the planet has been debated: is there life on Mars? Until the Martian probe nicknamed "Trinka" landed on the equatorial surface of the planet in 2002, equipped with a remotely-controlled grappling arm, it seemed that this question would never be answered. But, when the probe was successfully delivered and returned by the Russian craft Vostok 9 in late 2003, packed with many samples of Martian rock, several water and ice specimens, and a few very neat souvenirs, many scientists began to proclaim Mars as, indeed, an inhabited planet.
19. keep track of your sources Types: Books Newspapers Magazines Web pages Online databases
20. direct quotation: you use the exact words in the source and enclose them in quotation marks. Paraphrase you restate the information in the source in your own words. Summarize you condense the main idea of the source into a much shorter version, using your own words.
21. Writing your first draft Well-chosen direct quotations can capture your reader’s attention and add credibility to your work. Do use transitions to integrate quotations into the flow of your ideas. Do use quotations sparingly and keep them to a reasonable length. Don’t use quotations just to fill out your paper, or it will look like a cut-and-paste version of others’ works.
22. Quotation marks are used to show someone’s exact words. The children said excitedly, “Let’s ride on the Jungle Cruise!”
23. Quotation Mark Rules 1) Place a comma after the word that lets you know the person is saying something. Mickey said happily, “Come visit Disney World!”
24. Rule 2) Insert quotation marks before the first word of the person’s exact words and after the punctuation mark at the end of the person’s last word. The crowd exclaimed, “What a wonderful parade!”
25. Rule 3) Capitalize the first word of the person’s exact words. Caitlyn screamed, “Goofy, this is a blast!”
26. Can you find the mistakes in Mickey’s quotation? Mickey said, Come see me at Disney World!”
27. Mickey said, “Come see me at Disney World.” Yeah, great job, you did it!
28. Citing sources within your paper A parenthetical citation is a credit that follows any quotation, fact, or idea from a source other than you. Unlike regular tourists, these visitors “participate in the improvement of the living conditions of the communities visited” (Evans 15). According to ecologist Kelsey Evans, unlike regular tourists, these visitors “participate in the improvement of the living conditions of the communities visited” (15). This type of citation typically includes the author’s last name and the page number where the information is found. If you mention the author’s name when introducing a quotation, you need only include the page number in your citation.
29. Citing Each type of source has specific information that must be included and presented in a certain way. This is called citing a source the author’s or creator’s name the title the publishing information (who, when, where) Hearn, Michael Patrick. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001. Print.
30. Making a source list Here’s how to cite a book that has multiple authors. 1. Ward, Geoffrey C., Ken Burns, and Dayton Duncan. Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Knopf, 2001. Print. Publisher’s name First author: last name first, first name last Year of publication Other authors: first name, last name Title italicized 7. Medium of publication City of publication
31. Preparing a Works Cited list organize the sources into alphabetical order. Railton, Stephen. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Mark Twain in His Time. University of Virginia. 2004. Web. 14 Sept. 2007. Twain, Mark. “Memoranda.” The Galaxy 11.4 (1871): 615-19. Print. Ward, Geoffrey C., Ken Burns, and Dayton Duncan. Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Knopf, 2001. Print.
32. Preparing a Works Cited list Then create one document titled “Works Cited.” Indent all lines after the first line in a source. Works Cited Railton, Stephen. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Mark Twain in His Time. University of Virginia. 2004. Web. 14 Sept. 2007. Twain, Mark. “Memoranda.” The Galaxy 11.4 (1871): 615-19. Print. Ward, Geoffrey C., Ken Burns, and Dayton Duncan. Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Knopf, 2001. Print.