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Writing in the Disciplines

Writing in the Disciplines. Frederic Murray Assistant Professor MLIS, University of British Columbia BA, Political Science, University of Iowa Instructional Services Librarian Al Harris Library frederic.murray@swosu.edu. How does Google Search work?. Google Search .

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Writing in the Disciplines

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  1. Writing in the Disciplines Frederic Murray Assistant Professor MLIS, University of British Columbia BA, Political Science, University of Iowa Instructional Services Librarian Al Harris Library frederic.murray@swosu.edu

  2. How does Google Search work?

  3. Google Search • PageRank (algorithm) • 500 million variables • 2 Billion Terms • Bias? • Popularity is a Proxy for Importance

  4. Personalized Search • Google’s algorithm will suggest “what is best for you” – based on past searches. • It’s as if we looked up the same topic in an encyclopedia and each found different entries.

  5. Personalized Search • Find information that is most likely to reinforce your own worldview • We begin to lose dissenting opinion/conflicting points of view • Yet search seems neutral, objective, unbiased.

  6. Personalized Search & the Internet • When ideology drives the dissemination of information, knowledge is compromised. • Inadvertently we indoctrinate ourselves with our own ideas. • Google is likely to direct you to material with which you already agree.

  7. SO WHAT?

  8. What are the repercussions for research carried out in an environment where Search itself is being compromised?

  9. Best Practice • A major error is to look only for sources whose ideas, findings, or arguments they already agree • Do not start out to prove “X” • Start out to find out about “X”

  10. “There are days when the result is so bad that no fewer than five revisions are required. In contrast, when I'm greatly inspired, only four revisions are needed."--John Kenneth Galbraith

  11. WRITING is essentially REWRITING… Boyer, Paul S., and Stephen Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed; The Social Origins of Witchcraft. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1974.

  12. Exercise I: Research Puzzle

  13. The Research Process • GET A TOPIC • DEVELOP YOUR SEARCH STRATEGY • SEARCH AND READ • WRITE YOUR PAPER, SPEECH PRESENTATION ETC. • CITE YOUR SOURCES

  14. P.A.W. • Planning Assignments Wisely • P.A.W. gives you step-by-step instructions for writing good papers and finishing them on time.

  15. AND = Narrow OR = Expand Boolean • NOT = Exclude

  16. Tools of Scholarship Content Tools Catalogs Databases Lists Indexes Search Engines • Books • Articles • Journals • Citations • WWW

  17. Catalogs: List of Books • Al Harris Catalog • Open WorldCat • Ebrary

  18. E-Books: Ebrary • 24/7 • Full Text Searching* • Highlight Markup • Note Taking • Online Bookshelf • Chapter Results

  19. Choose Appropriate Databases • Subject Specific: • CINAHL = Nursing • BIOSIS  = Zoology • Search a range of databases • Think about the range of sources: books, journal articles, statistics, websites, conference reports…

  20. JSTOR • Includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. • Search by discipline: Sociology

  21. We think of citation patterns as the flow of information," says Carl Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington. "That's what a citation is — the trace that an idea flowed from one place to another."

  22. Snowballing • Building on the works of others • A scholarly article will always have References/Bibliography • A bibliography is always ripe for the picking…

  23. Bibliography

  24. Tracking Citations Wild, D. (2003, March). GOING TO WAR: A LITERATURE REVIEW. Emergency Nurse, 10 (10), 18. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database

  25. Tracking Citations Wild, D. (2003, March). GOING TO WAR: A LITERATURE REVIEW. Emergency Nurse, 10 (10), 18. Retrieved June 4, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database

  26. The Citation Video

  27. Class Exercise Citation Worksheet Identify Citation as Book (B) or Journal (J) Locate Item in Catalog or Database Identify name of Catalog or Database

  28. Specialized Search • Wolfram/Alpha • A computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links. • Scrius • For scientific information only. A web based comprehensive scientific research tool. • Ipl2 • Internet Public Library (IPL) and the Librarians' Internet Index (LII). A directory.

  29. Questions? • Contact me: • Frederic Murray • 774-7113 • frederic.murray@swosu.edu

  30. Thanks!

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