Welcome to WEEK 10!
First, we have some reading! Please review Topic 13 of Patten & Newhart, then read Duesbery & Twyman Part 3 & 4.
What’s more, we have the Week 10 Blog Post on simple searches for this week and a reply for the Week 9 Posts.
The Week’s Learning Objectives:
- Recall the basics of using library databases
- Compare and contrast ethics and social justice in action research to the ethics of more traditional academic research
- Acquire new tips and ideas for finding, reviewing, and utilizing other’s research
Learning Activities:
1. Review Topic 13 of Patten & Newhart
2. Read Duesbery & Twyman Part 3 & 4.
3. Review Basic Searching video to see Claire’s Simple Key Word search for “Artificial Intelligence” two minutes into the video
Assignments:
- Week 10 Plog Post
- Week 9 Reply
Week 9 Reply — Ready to go?
Help your classmates with their assignments this week. Review two classmates’ posts, as always stick to your assigned group as much as possible. Provide them with feedback on their research plan. Here are a few questions you can consider:
- Did everything make sense to you?
- Would you suggest different databases, additional keywords, or some other change in strategy?
- What are your thoughts on your classmate’s topic?
- Are there any parallels with your research plans or another classmate’s plans?
Again, those questions above are just example reply topics. There’s no need to try answering each one, or even more than one. Anything that adds something to the original post and can help that classmate is fine.
Hint: Use this discussion to improve your post before it’s graded! When I review the history of your post, it should be published before the end of March. However, you can revise and improve it. In fact, I encourage you to use sensible suggestions from your classmates to do just that.
Week 10 Blog Post — simple searches:
This week we’ll continue to document our research through the Blog. If you review Topic 13 (PN), you’ll see it suggested documenting your search of the literature.
Last week, we took care of the first step they mention in that topic: “identify the right databases and search terms or combinations of terms in order to find the most relevant literature” (p. 44).
Now, we’ll start with a few simple searches.
- Use at least two separate Forsyth databases relevant to your topic.
- Conduct at least three keyword searches in each database.
- As Patten & Newhart suggest: “Record [a] what databases were searched, and [b] the exact parameters you used to complete the search, including exact words …. [c] Record the number of results that were returned” (p. 46).
Report all of that information, steps 1 through 3c, in this week’s blog post. And,
- Provide APA style citations for at least four potentially useful sources. Be sure to connect each citation to at least one specific search, so you can easily find the source later.
As always, use spacing, font, and a picture to make your post a little easier and more attractive to the rest of us for easy reading. Use the Week 10 Blog Post category, a unique title for your blog post, and tag the post with keywords you used in your research.
These sources may or may not be articles you end up referring to in your final proposal. They should be sources whose titles and abstracts suggest they could be helpful.
Tip: These searches are intended to provide thousands of potential sources, but not provide viable result lists. Next week, we’ll do Boolean Searches to get results we may be able to reasonably review. This week, just one keyword per search, no Boolean terms or phrases. The video above provides one example.
If your first three searches do not help you find four sources that are even potentially relevant, feel free to conduct more searches. Just be sure to document all the searches you do. The documentation should help you out tremendously as you continue your research.
As you complete your new reading assignment in Duesbery & Twyman, I am sure you’ll notice that it is also relevant to a search of the literature. And, some of the ideas it suggests will be things I recommend in the next few weeks. As we continue, you’ll have quizzes on the new readings and a series of assignments that should slowly but surely provide you with all of the bits of information and writing that you will need for your research proposal.