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Searching & Evaluating Resources

Searching & Evaluating Resources. Rhetoric 1302. WWW Contains text, images, sound, and video Anyone can publish pages on the Web. Numerous hits with many duplicates Unregulated source of information. Periodical Databases Mainly text (HTML & PDF formats) Access to specific information

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Searching & Evaluating Resources

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  1. Searching & Evaluating Resources Rhetoric 1302

  2. WWW Contains text, images, sound, and video Anyone can publish pages on the Web. Numerous hits with many duplicates Unregulated source of information Periodical Databases Mainly text (HTML & PDF formats) Access to specific information High degree of authority on the information found within No duplicates WWW vs. Periodical Databases

  3. Searching the Web • Government information/Web sites • Associations & organizations • Commercial sites / Consumer info • Current news (limited) • Background info

  4. Searching Periodical Databases • Need to research articles, esp. scholarly • Greater concern for authoritative sources • More powerful “advanced” searching • Need newspaper archives/backfiles

  5. Intended for a general audience. Articles written by journalists who may or may not have special training Articles do not have footnotes Magazines have advertising, photographs, and glossy pages For Profit Not Peer-reviewed Intended for an audience knowledgeable in the field Articles are written by scholars, whose names are listed along with credentials Articles are footnoted and list sources used No advertising, few photographs, and usually printed on plain paper Usually not for profit Peer-reviewed Popular Vs. Scholarly

  6. Choose Your Sources Wisely • No matter how much time and effort that you put into your paper, it will be only as good as the sources that you use • Choose a variety of sources (reference materials, journals, essays, books, statistics, documented research, letters)

  7. Developing a Search Strategy • Select a topic • Identify keywords • Identify synonyms • Group concepts and add connectors (Boolean) • Use truncation and/or wildcard keys if available

  8. Selecting a Topic and Determining Keywords • After deciding on a topic, write down the topic in the form of a sentence or question. • Does ethnicity and class affect educational attainment in England? • Look at your question and pull out the most important words. • Ethnicity class education England

  9. Identifying Synonyms • Take your keywords and find other words that also describe your topic. Also write down narrower and broader terms to help refine your search. • ETHNICITY RACE RACISM MINORITY DEMOGRAPHY • EDUCATION UNIVERSITIES COLLEGE ACADEMIA STUDENT SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT • BIAS PREJUDICE DISCRIMINATION • ENGLISH BRITISH • AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EQUALITY DIVERSITY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROFILING

  10. Group Concepts • Group concepts together by parentheses or quotation marks “race prejudice” “higher educational attainment” or (race prejudice) (educational attainment)

  11. Proximity connectors • w or w5 (“with”) – searches for two terms in the order typed • n or n5 (“near”) – searches for two terms in any order • “ “ quotation marks – groups terms together as a phrase

  12. Examples • higher w education • bias n3 racial • “racial profiling” which is the same as racial w profiling

  13. Add connectors • Connectors (Boolean) • AND-both terms must appear together in the record (narrows search) • OR-either term appears in the record (broadens search) • NOT-placed before term omits all records featuring this term in them (use NOT carefully – it may omit results that you had not intended)

  14. Examples “racial bias”AND “higher education” “higher education” OR “university” (“higher education” OR “university”) AND “racial bias”

  15. Use truncation and/or wildcard keys if available • Both use a special key (*, ?, #, $) depending on the source used • Truncation - When key placed at end of term, all variations of word (from “trunk” or root onward) found. • Wildcard key – Replaces a single character and makes it a “wildcard” for any letter in the alphabet.

  16. universit* universities university Wom?n women woman womyn “racial bias” AND universit* OR “higher education” AND rac* Examples

  17. Evaluating Sources (ABC’s) • Audience • Authority • Bias • Currency • Scope

  18. Audience • What age group/education level/political affiliation/etc. is the audience? • Is this for a person with in-depth knowledge or a layperson?

  19. Authority • Does the author’s name appear on the Web page? • What are his/her credentials? • Does the author provide contact information?

  20. Bias • Is the source objective? • Could the writer or the organization’s affiliation put a different spin on the information presented? • What is the purpose of the source?

  21. Currency • When was the work published? • When was the work last updated? • How old are the sources or items in the bibliography? • How current is the topic? • If a Web page, do the links work?

  22. Scope • What does/doesn’t the work cover? • Is it an in-depth study (many pages) or superficial (one page)? • Are sources and statistics cited? • If a site, does it offer unique info not found in any other source?

  23. Selecting a Search Engine • Use Search Engine Watch or Search Engine Showdown to find and compare. • Choose only 2 or 3 search engines and learn them well. • Use help screen/search tips to educate yourself on advanced options. • Familiarize yourself with the advanced search, if available.

  24. Selecting Your Database(s) • Choose by subjecthttp://www.utdallas.edu/library/reference/subjectdata.html • In Alphabetical List, click “?” icon following name for more information • Ask a Reference Librarian – we know what’s best!

  25. Thesaurus • What is it? • List of standard subject terms used for indexing the documents in their files • Also known as controlled vocabulary • African American use Black Americans • Racial Bias use Racism

  26. Citing your sources • MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style, and other citation manuals available at the Reference Desk. • Copies may be available in Main Stacks • Need help citing? The Writing Lab can help.

  27. On-Line Sources for citing • Citation Style Guides by Auburn University http://www.lib.auburn.edu/citations.html • Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism by Duke University http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/citing.htm • Online! Citation Styles by Bedford/St. Martin’s http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html • Documentation Guide – Turabianhttp://juno.concordia.ca/faqs/turabian.html • Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgement by Dartmouth College http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/index.html

  28. Telephone Reference 972-883-2955 Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Friday 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. Saturday 10:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Sunday 1:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. E-mail Reference “Ask A Librarian” http://www.utdallas.edu/library/reference/erefform.htm By appointment with a reference librarian Contact Loreen Phillips loreen.phillips@utdallas.edu Stop by the reference desk and ask Ask a UT System Librarian-Chat Monday-Thurs. 12:00-6:00 pm; Friday 12:00-4:00 pm CST http://www.lib.utsystem.edu/students/ask.html Other Library Services

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