Research Journal Part 4: Types of Information

When using the Internet to research topics whether they are for personal or academic use, "BE A SKEPTIC!" You wouldn't trust the advice of a stranger at a bus stop without doing your research, don't trust every website you come across!

Some things to keep in mind when navigating the Internet are to look for an "info" or "about tab" to find out who created the website. You can then put this name into "Google" (or yahoo, Bing, or msn - you will get a different results with each search engine) and gather even more information about the factual substance of the website. Check the perimeter of your website for links to outside sources that can validate the authenticity of the statements made about your topic. Are the a personal opinion of facts? The URL is another quick way to check authenticity of a website to be scholarly based and usable for academic research if they contain .gov or .edu.

Lastly, check the date of last update of the website. Ongoing media often referred to as the "Information Cycle" moves from daily coverage to the day after, to the following week and into months and years of any given topics, especially when it is very news worthy. But again, most magazines aer personal opinion and not facts based within a scholarly journal  - be a skeptic!

Practice Research Questions:

1) Is a vegetarian diet healthier than a meat-based diet?

 I chose Books from Scholarly/Academic Publishers because they contain new research as well a review of existing research.
 

2) Target often forces musicians to alter lyrics in order to have their CD's sold in Target stores. Is this censorship?

Yes, this is censorship. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, censorship means, "Act of changing or suppressing speech or writing that is considered subversive of the common good."

3) How much more can a college graduate expect to earn over someone with a high school diploma?

I could use a Popular Magazine or Newspaper for this type of questionable research since it is not a direct fact of a specific job and is not asking for a specific salary. An overall opinion of salary differences would be edited by professionals but I would also want to make sure and look for the author's (of the magazine) credentials.

4) Should educators use commercial services to combat plagiarism?

I would choose a verifiable web site to research this question (such as .edu) because it would give me outside links to form an opinion and gain factual information from.

5) Is the current lack of sunspot activity affecting global warming?

Since this question has a lot of historical relevance and is still a continued debate, I would use a Book or e-Book since they offer in-depth info and a historical perspective. I could also be led to other sources. but would need to look for the author and publishes credentials.

I am going to use the same advice that I gave above to research three questions from my last blog.

All of my question are facts. I would not want to use popular magazines, newspapers or articles to answer these.

1.Who invented the cell phone?
2. Who invented Google?
3. Who invented the television?

I would use information from an Academic Encyclopedia as the authors of scholars and it is edited by professionals. It covers background information as wells s overviews.

I could also use an Academic Journal for my research on all of the above questions since I can count on those for being edited by professionals with in-depth research as well as primary research that is current. They are also easily accessible online through a library database.

 

 

https://moodle.clark.edu/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=257153

http://www.wou.edu/provost/library/clip/tutorials/eval_internet.htm

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censorship