{"id":69,"date":"2015-08-13T17:24:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T17:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/standupspeakoutxmaster\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=69"},"modified":"2015-08-13T19:51:02","modified_gmt":"2015-08-13T19:51:02","slug":"developing-a-research-strategy","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/chapter\/developing-a-research-strategy\/","title":{"raw":"Developing a Research Strategy","rendered":"Developing a Research Strategy"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Differentiate between research time and speech preparation time.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Understand how to establish research needs before beginning research.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Explain the difference between academic and nonacademic sources.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Identify appropriate nonacademic sources (e.g., books, special-interest periodicals, newspapers and blogs, and websites).<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Identify appropriate academic sources (e.g., scholarly books, scholarly articles, computerized databases, and scholarly information on the web).<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Evaluate George\u2019s (2008) six questions to analyze sources.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn the previous section we discussed what research was and the difference between primary and secondary research. In this section, we are going to explore how to develop a research strategy. Think of a research strategy as your personal map. The end destination is the actual speech, and along the way, there are various steps you need to complete to reach your destination: the speech. From the day you receive your speech assignment, the more clearly you map out the steps you need to take leading up to the date when you will give the speech, the easier your speech development process will be. In the rest of this section, we are going to discuss time management, determining your research needs, finding your sources, and evaluating your sources.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Allotting Time<\/h2>\r\nFirst and foremost, when starting a new project, no matter how big or small, it is important to seriously consider how much time that project is going to take. To help us discuss the issue of time with regard to preparing your speech, we\u2019re going to examine what the Project Management Institute refers to as the <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">project life cycle<\/span><\/span>, or \u201cthe phases that connect the beginning of a project to its end.\u201d<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_007\" class=\"im_footnote\">[footnote]Project Management Institute. (2004). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">A guide to the project management body of knowledge: PMBOK\u00ae guide<\/em> (3rd ed.). Newton Square, PA: Author, p. 19.[\/footnote]<\/span> Often in a public speaking class, the time you have is fairly concrete. You may have two or three weeks between speeches in a semester course or one to two weeks in a quarter course. In either case, from the moment your instructor gives you the assigned speech, the proverbial clock is ticking. With each passing day, you are losing precious time in your speech preparation process. Now, we realize that as a college student you probably have many things vying for your time in life: school, family, jobs, friends, or dating partners. For this reason, you need to really think through how much time it\u2019s going to take you to complete your preparation in terms of both research and speech preparation.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s01_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Research Time<\/h2>\r\nThe first step that takes a good chunk of your time is researching your speech. Whether you are conducting primary research or relying on secondary research sources, you\u2019re going to be spending a significant amount of time researching.\r\n\r\nAs Howard and Taggart point out in their book <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Research Matters<\/em>, research is not just a one-and-done task.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_008\" class=\"im_footnote\">[footnote]Howard, R. M., &amp; Taggart, A. R. (2010). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Research matters<\/em>. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 102\u2013103.[\/footnote]<\/span> As you develop your speech, you may realize that you want to address a question or issue that didn\u2019t occur to you during your first round of research, or that you\u2019re missing a key piece of information to support one of your points. For these reasons, it\u2019s always wise to allow extra time for targeted research later in your schedule.\r\n\r\nYou also need to take into account the possibility of meeting with a research librarian. Although research librarians have many useful tips and tricks, they have schedules just like anyone else. If you know you are going to need to speak with a librarian, try to set up an appointment ahead of time for the date when you think you\u2019ll have your questions organized, and be ready to meet.\r\n\r\nA good rule of thumb is to devote no more than one-third of your speech preparation time to research (e.g., if you have three weeks before your speech date, your research should be done by the end of the first week). If you are not careful, you could easily end up spending all your time on research and waiting until the last minute to actually prepare your speech, which is highly inadvisable.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s01_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Speech Preparation Time<\/h2>\r\nThe second task in speech preparation is to sit down and actually develop your speech. During this time period, you will use the information you collected during your research to fully flesh out your ideas into a complete speech. You may be making arguments using the research or creating visual aids. Whatever you need to complete during this time period, you need to give yourself ample time to actually prepare your speech. One common rule of thumb is one day of speech preparation per one minute of actual speaking time.\r\n\r\nBy allowing yourself enough time to prepare your speech, you\u2019re also buffering yourself against a variety of things that can go wrong both in life and with your speech. Let\u2019s face it, life happens. Often events completely outside our control happen, and these events could negatively impact our ability to prepare a good speech. When you give yourself a little time buffer, you\u2019re already insulated from the possible negative effects on your speech if something goes wrong.\r\n\r\nThe last part of speech preparation is practice. Although some try to say that practice makes perfect, we realize that perfection is never realistic because no one is perfect. We prefer this mantra: \u201cPractice makes permanent.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd by \u201cpractice,\u201d we mean actual rehearsals in which you deliver your speech out loud. Speakers who only script out their speeches or only think through them often forget their thoughts when they stand in front of an audience. Research has shown that when individuals practice, their speech performance in front of an audience is more closely aligned with their practice than people who just think about their speeches. In essence, you need to allow yourself to become comfortable not only with the text of the speech but also with the nonverbal delivery of the speech, so giving yourself plenty of speech preparation time also gives you more practice time. We will discuss speech development and practice further in other chapters.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Determining Your Needs<\/h2>\r\nWhen starting your research, you want to start by asking yourself what you think you need. Obviously, you\u2019ll need to have a good idea about what your topic is before just randomly looking at information in a library or online. Your instructor may provide some very specific guidance for the type of information he or she wants to see in your speech, so that\u2019s a good place to start determining your basic needs.\r\n\r\nOnce you have a general idea of your basic needs, you can start to ask yourself the following series of simple questions:\r\n<ol id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s02_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist im_editable im_block\">\r\n\t<li>What do I, personally, know about my topic?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Do I have any clear gaps in my knowledge of my topic?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Do I need to conduct primary research for my speech?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>What type of secondary research do I need?\r\n<ol id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s02_l02\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\r\n\t<li>Do I need research related to facts?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Do I need research related to theories?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Do I need research related to applications?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThe clearer you are about the type of research you need at the onset of the research process, the easier it will be to locate specific information.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Finding Resources<\/h2>\r\nOnce you have a general idea about the basic needs you have for your research, it\u2019s time to start tracking down your secondary sources. Thankfully, we live in a world that is swimming with information. Back in the decades when the authors of this textbook first started researching, we all had to go to a library and search through a physical card catalog to find books. If you wanted to research a topic in magazine or journal articles, you had to look up key terms in a giant book, printed annually, known as an index of periodicals. Researchers could literally spend hours in the library and find just one or two sources that were applicable to their topic.\r\n\r\nToday, on the other hand, information is quite literally at our fingertips. Not only is information generally more accessible, it is also considerably easier to access. In fact, we have the opposite problem from a couple of decades ago\u2014we have too much information at our fingertips. In addition, we now have to be more skeptical about where that information is coming from. In this section we\u2019re going to discuss how to find information in both nonacademic and academic sources.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Nonacademic Information Sources<\/h2>\r\nNonacademic information sources are sometimes also called popular press information sources; their primary purpose is to be read by the general public. Most nonacademic information sources are written at a sixth- to eighth-grade reading level, so they are very accessible. Although the information often contained in these sources is often quite limited, the advantage of using nonacademic sources is that they appeal to a broad, general audience.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Books<\/h2>\r\nThe first source we have for finding secondary information is books. Now, the authors of your text are admitted bibliophiles\u2014we love books. Fiction, nonfiction, it doesn\u2019t really matter, we just love books. And, thankfully, we live in a world where books abound and reading has never been easier. Unless your topic is very cutting-edge, chances are someone has written a book about your topic at some point in history.\r\n\r\nHistorically, the original purpose of libraries was to house manuscripts that were copied by hand and stored in library collections. After Gutenberg created the printing press, we had the ability to mass produce writing, and the handwritten manuscript gave way to the printed manuscript. In today\u2019s modern era, we are seeing another change where printed manuscript is now giving way, to some extent, to the electronic manuscript. Amazon.com\u2019s Kindle, Barnes &amp; Noble\u2019s Nook, Apple\u2019s iPad, and Sony\u2019s e-Ink-based readers are examples of the new hardware enabling people to take entire libraries of information with them wherever they go. We now can carry the amount of information that used to be housed in the greatest historic libraries in the palms of our hands. When you sit back and really think about it, that\u2019s pretty darn cool!\r\n\r\nIn today\u2019s world, there are three basic types of libraries you should be aware of: physical library, physical\/electronic library, and e-online library. The physical library is a library that exists only in the physical world. Many small community or county library collections are available only if you physically go into the library and check out a book. We highly recommend doing this at some point. Libraries today generally model the US Library of Congress\u2019s card catalog system. As such, most library layouts are similar. This familiar layout makes it much easier to find information if you are using multiple libraries. Furthermore, because the Library of Congress catalogs information by type, if you find one book that is useful for you, it\u2019s very likely that surrounding books on the same shelf will also be useful. When people don\u2019t take the time to physically browse in a library, they often miss out on some great information.\r\n\r\nThe second type of library is the library that has both physical and electronic components. Most college and university libraries have both the physical stacks (where the books are located) and electronic databases containing e-books. The two largest e-book databases are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebrary.com\">ebrary<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.netlibrary.com\">NetLibrary<\/a>. Although these library collections are generally cost-prohibitive for an individual, more and more academic institutions are subscribing to them. Some libraries are also making portions of their collections available online for free: <a href=\"http:\/\/digitalcollections.harvard.edu\">Harvard University\u2019s Digital Collections<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ebooks.nypl.org\">New York Public Library\u2019s E-book Collection<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/onlinegallery\/ttp\/ttpbooks.html#\">The British Library\u2019s Online Gallery<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\">US Library of Congress<\/a>.\r\n\r\nOne of the greatest advantages to using libraries for finding books is that you can search not only their books, but often a wide network of other academic institutions\u2019 books as well. Furthermore, in today\u2019s world, we have one of the greatest online card catalogs ever created\u2014and it wasn\u2019t created for libraries at all! Retail bookseller sites like Amazon.com can be a great source for finding books that may be applicable to your topic, and the best part is, you don\u2019t actually need to purchase the book if you use your library, because your library may actually own a copy of a book you find on a bookseller site. You can pick a topic and then search for that topic on a bookseller site. If you find a book that you think may be appropriate, plug that book\u2019s title into your school\u2019s electronic library catalog. If your library owns the book, you can go to the library and pick it up today.\r\n\r\nIf your library doesn\u2019t own it, do you still have an option other than buying the book? Yes: interlibrary loans. An <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">interlibrary loan<\/span><\/span> is a process where librarians are able to search other libraries to locate the book a researcher is trying to find. If another library has that book, then the library asks to borrow it for a short period of time. Depending on how easy a book is to find, your library could receive it in a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Keep in mind that interlibrary loans take time, so do not expect to get a book at the last minute. The more lead time you provide a librarian to find a book you are looking for, the greater the likelihood that the book will be sent through the mail to your library on time.\r\n\r\nThe final type of library is a relatively new one, the library that exists only online. With the influx of computer technology, we have started to create vast stores of digitized content from around the world. These online libraries contain full-text documents free of charge to everyone. Some online libraries we recommend are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\">Project Gutenberg<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\">Google Books<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readprint.com\">Read Print<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/openlibrary.org\">Open Library<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getfreeebooks.com\">Get Free e-Books<\/a>. This is a short list of just a handful of the libraries that are now offering free e-content.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">General-Interest Periodicals<\/h2>\r\nThe second category of information you may seek out includes <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">general-interest periodicals<\/span><\/span>. These are magazines and newsletters published on a fairly systematic basis. Some popular magazines in this category include <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The New Yorker<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">People<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Parade<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Smithsonian<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Saturday Evening Post<\/em>. These magazines are considered \u201cgeneral interest\u201d because most people in the United States could pick up a copy of these magazines and find them interesting and topical.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Special-Interest Periodicals<\/h2>\r\n<span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Special-interest periodicals<\/span><\/span> are magazines and newsletters that are published for a narrower audience. In a 2005 article, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Business Wire<\/em> noted that in the United States there are over ten thousand different magazines published annually, but only two thousand of those magazines have significant circulation. <span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_009\" class=\"im_footnote\">Total number of magazines published in the US is greater than 10,000 but only about 2,000 have significant circulation. [footnote](2005, September 21). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Business Wire<\/em>. Retrieved from <a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/findarticles.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/findarticles.com<\/a>.[\/footnote]<\/span> Some more widely known special-interest periodicals are <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Sports Illustrated<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Bloomberg\u2019s Business Week<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Gentleman\u2019s Quarterly<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Vogue<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Popular Science<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">House and Garden<\/em>. But for every major magazine, there are a great many other lesser-known magazines like <em class=\"im_emphasis\">American Coin Op Magazine<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Varmint Hunter<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Shark Diver Magazine<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Pet Product News International<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Water Garden News<\/em>, to name just a few.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Newspapers and Blogs<\/h2>\r\nAnother major source of nonacademic information is newspapers and blogs. Thankfully, we live in a society that has a free press. We\u2019ve opted to include both newspapers and blogs in this category. A few blogs (e.g., <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Huffington Post<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Talkingpoints Memo<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">News Max<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Daily Beast<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Salon<\/em>) function similarly to traditional newspapers. Furthermore, in the past few years we\u2019ve lost many traditional newspapers around the United States; cities that used to have four or five daily papers may now only have one or two.\r\n\r\nAccording to newspapers.com, the top ten newspapers in the United States are <em class=\"im_emphasis\">USA Today<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Wall Street Journal<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">New York Times<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Los Angeles Times<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Washington Post<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">New York Daily News<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Chicago Tribune<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">New York Post<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Long Island Newsday<\/em>, and the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Houston Chronicle<\/em>. Most colleges and universities subscribe to a number of these newspapers in paper form or have access to them electronically. Furthermore, LexisNexis, a database many colleges and universities subscribe to, has access to full text newspaper articles from these newspapers and many more around the world.\r\n\r\nIn addition to traditional newspapers, blogs are becoming a mainstay of information in today\u2019s society. In fact, since the dawn of the twenty-first century many major news stories have been broken by professional bloggers rather than traditional newspaper reporters.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_010\" class=\"im_footnote\">[footnote]Ochman, B. L. (2007, June 29). The top 10 news stories broken by bloggers. <em class=\"im_emphasis\">TechNewsWorld.<\/em> [Web log post]. Retrieved July 14, 2011, from <a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mpdailyfix.com\/technewsworld-the-top-10-news-stories-broken-by-bloggers\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.mpdailyfix.com\/technewsworld-the-top-10-news-stories-broken-by-bloggers<\/a>.[\/footnote]<\/span> Although anyone can create a blog, there are many reputable blog sites that are run by professional journalists. As such, blogs can be a great source of information. However, as with all information on the Internet, you often have to wade through a lot of junk to find useful, accurate information.\r\n\r\nWe do not personally endorse any blogs, but according to Technorati.com, the top ten most commonly read blogs in the world are as follows:\r\n<ol id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s04_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist im_editable im_block\">\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Huffington Post<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmodo.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Gizmodo<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.techcrunch.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">TechCrunch<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/corner.nationalreview.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Corner<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Mashable!<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.engadget.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Engadget<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Boing Boing<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gawker.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Gawker<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Daily Beast<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tmz.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">TMZ<\/em><\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Encyclopedias<\/h2>\r\nAnother type of source that you may encounter is the encyclopedia. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Encyclopedias<\/span><\/span> are information sources that provide short, very general information about a topic. Encyclopedias are available in both print and electronic formats, and their content can range from eclectic and general (e.g., <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica<\/em>) to the very specific (e.g., <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture<\/em>, or <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena<\/em>). It is important to keep in mind that encyclopedias are designed to give only brief, fairly superficial summaries of a topic area. Thus they may be useful for finding out what something is if it is referenced in another source, but they are generally not a useful source for your actual speech. In fact, many instructors do not allow students to use encyclopedias as sources for their speeches for this very reason.\r\n\r\nOne of the most popular online encyclopedic sources is Wikipedia. Like other encyclopedias, it can be useful for finding out basic information (e.g., what baseball teams did Catfish Hunter play for?) but will not give you the depth of information you need for a speech. Also keep in mind that Wikipedia, unlike the general and specialized encyclopedias available through your library, can be edited by anyone and therefore often contains content errors and biased information. If you are a fan of <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Colbert Report<\/em>, you probably know that host Stephen Colbert has, on several occasions, asked viewers to change Wikipedia content to reflect his views of the world. This is just one example of why one should always be careful of information on the web, but this advice is even more important when considering group-edited sites such as Wikipedia.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s06\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Websites<\/h2>\r\nWebsites are the last major source of nonacademic information. In the twenty-first century we live in a world where there is a considerable amount of information readily available at our fingertips. Unfortunately, you can spend hours and hours searching for information and never quite find what you\u2019re looking for if you don\u2019t devise an Internet search strategy. First, you need to select a good search engine to help you find appropriate information. Table 1 \"Search Engines\" contains a list of common search engines and the types of information they are useful for finding.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s06_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\r\n\r\n<span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 1.<\/span> Search Engines\r\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.google.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td rowspan=\"5\">General search engines<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.yahoo.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.yahoo.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.bing.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ask.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ask.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.about.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.about.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usa.gov\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.usa.gov<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Searches US government websites<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hon.ch\/MedHunt\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.hon.ch\/MedHunt<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Searches only trustworthy medical websites<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/medlineplus.gov\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/medlineplus.gov<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Largest search engine for medical related research<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bizrate.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.bizrate.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Comparison shopping search engine<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ameristat.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ameristat.org<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Provides statistics about the US population<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/artcyclopedia.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/artcyclopedia.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Searches for art-related information<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flipdog.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.flipdog.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Searches for job postings across job search websites<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Academic Information Sources<\/h2>\r\nAfter nonacademic sources, the second major source for finding information comes from academics. The main difference between academic or scholarly information and the information you get from the popular press is oversight. In the nonacademic world, the primary gatekeeper of information is the editor, who may or may not be a content expert. In academia, we have established a way to perform a series of checks to ensure that the information is accurate and follows agreed-upon academic standards. For example, this book, or portions of this book, were read by dozens of academics who provided feedback. Having this extra step in the writing process is time consuming, but it provides an extra level of confidence in the relevance and accuracy of the information. In this section, we will discuss scholarly books and articles, computerized databases, and finding scholarly information on the web.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Scholarly Books<\/h2>\r\nCollege and university libraries are filled with books written by academics. According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taaonline.net\">Text and Academic Authors Association<\/a>\u00a0there are two types of scholarly books: textbooks and academic books. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Textbooks<\/span><\/span> are books that are written about a segment of content within a field of academic study and are written for undergraduate or graduate student audiences. These books tend to be very specifically focused. Take this book, for instance. We are not trying to introduce you to the entire world of human communication, just one small aspect of it: public speaking. Textbooks tend to be written at a fairly easy reading level and are designed to transfer information in a manner that mirrors classroom teaching to some extent. Also, textbooks are secondary sources of information. They are designed to survey the research available in a particular field rather than to present new research.\r\n\r\n<span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Academic books<\/span><\/span> are books that are primarily written for other academics for informational and research purposes. Generally speaking, when instructors ask for you to find scholarly books, they are referring to academic books. Thankfully, there are hundreds of thousands of academic books published on almost every topic you can imagine. In the field of communication, there are a handful of major publishers who publish academic books: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sagepub.com\">SAGE<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.routledge.com\">Routledge<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.josseybass.com\">Jossey-Bass<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pfeiffer.com\">Pfeiffer<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apa.org\/pubs\/books\">American Psychological Association<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncastore.com\">National Communication Association<\/a>, among others. In addition to the major publishers who publish academic books, there are also many university presses who publish academic books: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunypress.edu\">SUNY Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oup.com\/us\">Oxford University Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sc.edu\/uscpress\">University of South Carolina Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylorpress.com\">Baylor University Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.press.uillinois.edu\">University of Illinois Press<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uapress.ua.edu\">University of Alabama Press<\/a>\u00a0are just a few of them.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Scholarly Articles<\/h2>\r\nBecause most academic writing comes in the form of scholarly articles or journal articles, that is the best place for finding academic research on a given topic. Every academic subfield has its own journals, so you should never have a problem finding the best and most recent research on a topic. However, scholarly articles are written for a scholarly audience, so reading scholarly articles takes more time than if you were to read a magazine article in the popular press. It\u2019s also helpful to realize that there may be parts of the article you simply do not have the background knowledge to understand, and there is nothing wrong with that. Many research studies are conducted by quantitative researchers who rely on statistics to examine phenomena. Unless you have training in understanding the statistics, it is difficult to interpret the statistical information that appears in these articles. Instead, focus on the beginning part of the article where the author(s) will discuss previous research (secondary research), and then focus at the end of the article, where the author(s) explain what was found in their research (primary research).\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Computerized Databases<\/h2>\r\nFinding academic research is easier today than it ever has been in the past because of large computer databases containing research. Here\u2019s how these databases work. A database company signs contracts with publishers to gain the right to store the publishers\u2019 content electronically. The database companies then create thematic databases containing publications related to general areas of knowledge (business, communication, psychology, medicine, etc.). The database companies then sell subscriptions to these databases to libraries.\r\n\r\nThe largest of these database companies is a group called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebscohost.com\">EBSCO Publishing<\/a>, which runs both EBSCO Host (an e-journal provider) and NetLibrary (a large e-book library). Some of the more popular databases that EBSCO provides to colleges and universities are: Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, Communication and Mass Media Complete, Education Research Complete, Humanities International Complete, Philosopher\u2019s Index, Political Science Complete, PsycArticles, and Vocational and Career Collection. Academic Search Complete is the broadest of all the databases and casts a fairly wide net across numerous fields. Information that you find using databases can contain both nonacademic and academic information, so EBSCO Host has built in a number of filtering options to help you limit the types of information available.\r\n\r\nWe strongly recommend checking out your library\u2019s website to see what databases they have available and if they have any online tutorials for finding sources using the databases to which your library subscribes.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Scholarly Information on the Web<\/h2>\r\nIn addition to the subscription databases that exist on the web, there are also a number of great sources for scholarly information on the web. As mentioned earlier, however, finding scholarly information on the web poses a problem because anyone can post information on the web. Fortunately, there are a number of great websites that attempt to help filter this information for us.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s04_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\r\n\r\n<span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 2.<\/span> Scholarly Information on the Web\r\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<thead>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th>Website<\/th>\r\n<th>Type of Information<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.doaj.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.doaj.org<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>The Directory of Open Access Journals is an online database of all freely available academic journals online.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/scholar.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/scholar.google.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Google Scholar attempts to filter out nonacademic information. Unfortunately, it tends to return a large number of for-pay site results.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cios.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.cios.org<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Communication Institute for Online Scholarship is a clearinghouse for online communication scholarship. This site contains full-text journals and books.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/xxx.lanl.gov\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/xxx.lanl.gov<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>This is an open access site devoted to making physical science research accessible.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biomedcentral.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.biomedcentral.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>BioMed Central provides open-access medical research.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.osti.gov\/eprints\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.osti.gov\/eprints<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>The E-print Network provides access to a range of scholarly research that interests people working for the Department of Energy.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.freemedicaljournals.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.freemedicaljournals.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>This site provides the public with free access to medical journals.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/highwire.stanford.edu\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/highwire.stanford.edu<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>This is the link to Stanford University\u2019s free, full-text science archives.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.plosbiology.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.plosbiology.org<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>This is the Public Library of Science\u2019s journal for biology.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.scirus.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.scirus.com<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Scrius is a search engine designed to allow researchers to search for journal content, scientists\u2019 homepages, courseware, and preprint material.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ipl.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ipl.org<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>The Internet Public Library provides subject guides, reference works, and a number of databases.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/vlib.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/vlib.org<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>The WWW Virtual Library provides annotated lists of websites compiled by scholars in specific areas.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Tips for Finding Information Sources<\/h2>\r\nNow that we\u2019ve given you plenty of different places to start looking for research, we need to help you sort through the research. In this section, we\u2019re going to provide a series of tips that should make this process easier and help you find appropriate information quickly. And here is our first tip: We cannot recommend Mary George\u2019s book <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know<\/em> more highly. Honestly, we wish this book had been around when we were just learning how to research.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Create a Research Log<\/h2>\r\nNothing is more disheartening than when you find yourself at 1:00 a.m. asking, \u201cHaven\u2019t I already read this?\u201d We\u2019ve all learned the tough lessons of research, and this is one that keeps coming back to bite us in the backside if we\u2019re not careful. According to a very useful book called <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Elements of Library Research<\/em> by M. W. George, a <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">research log<\/span><\/span> is a \u201cstep-by-step account of the process of identifying, obtaining, and evaluating sources for a specific project, similar to a lab note-book in an experimental setting.\u201d<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_011\" class=\"im_footnote\">[footnote]George, M. W. (2008). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The elements of library research: What every student needs to know<\/em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 183.[\/footnote]<\/span> In essence, George believes that keeping a log of what you\u2019ve done is very helpful because it can help you keep track of what you\u2019ve read thus far. You can use a good old-fashioned notebook, or if you carry around your laptop or netbook with you, you can always keep it digitally. While there are expensive programs like Microsoft Office OneNote that can be used for note keeping, there are also a number of free tools that could be adapted as well. The websites in Table 3 \"Note-Taking Help\" will help you find templates and tools for electronic note taking.\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s01_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\r\n\r\n<span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 3.<\/span> Note-Taking Help\r\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\r\n<thead>\r\n<tr>\r\n<th>Website<\/th>\r\n<th>Type of Information<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">Templates<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uleth.ca\/lib\/guides\/research-log.doc\">University of Lethbridge<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Word Document template created by the University of Lethbridge<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.comcol.umass.edu\/dbc\/rtfs\/research_log_template.rtf\">University of Massachusetts at Amherst<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>RTF file template created by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/departments\/library\/library_module\/unit3\/researchlog.doc\">Tarleton State University<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Word Document template created by Tarleton State University<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/~lkutner\/researchlogexampletemplate.doc\">University of Vermont<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Word Document template created by the University of Vermont<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/knowledgecenter.unr.edu\/instruction\/help\/liblog.rtf\">University of Nevada<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Word Document template created by the University of Nevada<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">Software Packages<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-us\/onenote\">Microsoft Office OneNote<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Microsoft Office OneNote comes with MS Office Professional or is free to try for thirty days. It is also available for forty-five dollars for students through an academic discount program. There is a free app version available for the iPhone or iPad.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.evernote.com\">Evernote<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>Evernote has both a free version and a subscription version and is similar to MS OneNote. You can also get this one for your smart phone, iPad, or home computer (PC or MAC) and easily sync files between all of your electronic devices.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/notebook.zoho.com\/nb\/login.do?serviceurl=%2Fnb%2Findex.do\">Note-taking system<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>This is an online, web-based note-taking system that has no cost.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/journler.com\">Note-taking software<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>This is good note-taking software, but it currently costs $34.95 for a single-user subscription.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebrain.com\">The Brain<\/a><\/td>\r\n<td>If you\u2019re more of a visual organizer, The Brain offers a free program for visually organizing information. You can also purchase more expensive packages as necessary.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Start with Background Information<\/h2>\r\nIt\u2019s not unusual for students to try to jump right into the meat of a topic, only to find out that there is a lot of technical language they just don\u2019t understand. For this reason, you may want to start your research with sources written for the general public. Generally, these lower-level sources are great for background information on a topic and are helpful when trying to learn the basic vocabulary of a subject area.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Search Your Library\u2019s Computers<\/h2>\r\nOnce you\u2019ve started getting a general grasp of the broad content area you want to investigate, it\u2019s time to sit down and see what your school\u2019s library has to offer. If you do not have much experience in using your library\u2019s website, see if the website contains an online tutorial. Most schools offer online tutorials to show students the resources that students can access. If your school doesn\u2019t have an online tutorial, you may want to call your library and schedule an appointment with a research librarian to learn how to use the school\u2019s computers. Also, if you tell your librarian that you want to learn how to use the library, he or she may be able to direct you to online resources that you may have missed.\r\n\r\nTry to search as many different databases as possible. Look for relevant books, e-books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, journal articles, and media files. Modern college and university libraries have a ton of sources, and one search may not find everything you are looking for on the first pass. Furthermore, don\u2019t forget to think about synonyms for topics. The more synonyms you can generate for your topic, the better you\u2019ll be at finding information.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Learn to Skim<\/h2>\r\nIf you sit down and try to completely read every article or book you find, it will take you a very long time to get through all the information. Start by reading the introductory paragraphs. Generally, the first few paragraphs will give you a good idea about the overall topic. If you\u2019re reading a research article, start by reading the abstract. If the first few paragraphs or abstract don\u2019t sound like they\u2019re applicable, there\u2019s a good chance the source won\u2019t be useful for you. Second, look for highlighted, italicized, or bulleted information. Generally, authors use highlighting, italics, and bullets to separate information to make it jump out for readers. Third, look for tables, charts, graphs, and figures. All these forms are separated from the text to make the information more easily understandable for a reader, so seeing if the content is relevant is a way to see if it helps you. Fourth, look at headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings show you how an author has grouped information into meaningful segments. If you read the headings and subheadings and nothing jumps out as relevant, that\u2019s another indication that there may not be anything useful in that source. Lastly, take good notes while you\u2019re skimming. One way to take good notes is to attach a sticky note to each source. If you find relevant information, write that information on the sticky note along with the page number. If you don\u2019t find useful information in a source, just write \u201cnothing\u201d on the sticky note and move on to the next source. This way when you need to sort through your information, you\u2019ll be able to quickly see what information was useful and locate the information. Other people prefer to create a series of note cards to help them organize their information. Whatever works best for you is what you should use.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Read Bibliographies\/Reference Pages<\/h2>\r\nAfter you\u2019ve finished reading useful sources, see who those sources cited on their bibliographies or reference pages. We call this method <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">backtracking<\/span><\/span>. Often the sources cited by others can lead us to even better sources than the ones we found initially.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s06\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Ask for Help<\/h2>\r\nDon\u2019t be afraid to ask for help. As we said earlier in this chapter, reference librarians are your friends. They won\u2019t do your work for you, but they are more than willing to help if you ask.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Evaluating Resources<\/h2>\r\nThe final step in research occurs once you\u2019ve found resources relevant to your topic: evaluating the quality of those resources. Below is a list of six questions to ask yourself about the sources you\u2019ve collected; these are drawn from the book <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Elements of Library Research<\/em> by M. W. George.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_012\" class=\"im_footnote\">[footnote]George, M. W. (2008). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The elements of library research: What every student needs to know<\/em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.[\/footnote]<\/span>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">What Is the Date of Publication?<\/h2>\r\nThe first question you need to ask yourself is the date of the source\u2019s publication. Although there may be classic studies that you want to cite in your speech, generally, the more recent the information, the better your presentation will be. As an example, if you want to talk about the current state of women\u2019s education in the United States, relying on information from the 1950s that debated whether \u201ccoeds\u201d should attend class along with male students is clearly not appropriate. Instead you\u2019d want to use information published within the past five to ten years.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Who Is the Author?<\/h2>\r\nThe next question you want to ask yourself is about the author. Who is the author? What are her or his credentials? Does he or she work for a corporation, college, or university? Is a political or commercial agenda apparent in the writing? The more information we can learn about an author, the better our understanding and treatment of that author\u2019s work will be. Furthermore, if we know that an author is clearly biased in a specific manner, ethically we must tell our audience members. If we pretend an author is unbiased when we know better, we are essentially lying to our audience.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Who Is the Publisher?<\/h2>\r\nIn addition to knowing who the author is, we also want to know who the publisher is. While there are many mainstream publishers and academic press publishers, there are also many fringe publishers. For example, maybe you\u2019re reading a research report published by the Cato Institute. While the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\">Cato Institute<\/a> may sound like a regular publisher, it is actually a libertarian think tank. As such, you can be sure that the information in its publications will have a specific political bias. While the person writing the research report may be an upstanding author with numerous credits, the Cato Institute only publishes reports that adhere to its political philosophy. Generally, a cursory examination of a publisher\u2019s website is a good indication of the specific political bias. Most websites will have an \u201cAbout\u201d section or an \u201cFAQ\u201d section that will explain who the publisher is.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Is It Academic or Nonacademic?<\/h2>\r\nThe next question you want to ask yourself is whether the information comes from an academic or a nonacademic source. Because of the enhanced scrutiny academic sources go through, we argue that you can generally rely more on the information contained in academic sources than nonacademic sources. One very notorious example of the difference between academic versus nonacademic information can be seen in the problem of popular-culture author John Gray, author of <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus<\/em>. Gray, who received a PhD via a correspondence program from Columbia Pacific University in 1982, has written numerous books on the topic of men and women. Unfortunately, the academic research on the subject of sex and gender differences is often very much at odds with Gray\u2019s writing. For a great critique of Gray\u2019s writings, check out Julia Wood\u2019s article in the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Southern Communication Journal<\/em>.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_013\" class=\"im_footnote\">[footnote]Wood, J. T. (2002). A critical response to John Gray\u2019s Mars and Venus portrayals of men and women. <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Southern Communication Journal, 67<\/em>, 201\u2013210.[\/footnote]<\/span> Ultimately, we strongly believe that using academic publications is always in your best interest because they generally contain the most reliable information.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">What Is the Quality of the Bibliography\/Reference Page?<\/h2>\r\nAnother great indicator of a well-thought-out and researched source is the quality of its bibliography or reference page. If you look at a source\u2019s bibliography or reference page and it has only a couple of citations, then you can assume that either the information was not properly cited or it was largely made up by someone. Even popular-press books can contain great bibliographies and reference pages, so checking them out is a great way to see if an author has done her or his homework prior to writing a text. As noted above, it is also an excellent way to find additional resources on a topic.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s06\" class=\"im_section\">\r\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Do People Cite the Work?<\/h2>\r\nThe last question to ask about a source is, \u201cAre other people actively citing the work?\u201d One way to find out whether a given source is widely accepted is to see if numerous people are citing it. If you find an article that has been cited by many other authors, then clearly the work has been viewed as credible and useful. If you\u2019re doing research and you keep running across the same source over and over again, that is an indication that it\u2019s an important study that you should probably take a look at. Many colleges and universities also subscribe to Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), which are run through <a href=\"http:\/\/isiwebofknowledge.com\">Institute for Scientific Information\u2019s Web of Knowledge<\/a> database service. All these databases help you find out where information has been cited by other researchers.\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-success\">\r\n<h3>Key Takeaways<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>In conducting research for a speech, commit adequate time and plan your schedule. Consider both the research time, or time spent gathering information, and the preparation time needed to organize and practice your speech.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Get a general idea of your research needs even before going to the library so that you can take the most advantage of the library\u2019s resources and librarians\u2019 help.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>We live in a world dominated by information, but some information is filtered and some is not. It\u2019s important to know the difference between academic and nonacademic sources.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Nonacademic sources are a good place to gain general knowledge of a topic; these include books, general or special-interest periodicals, newspapers and blogs, and websites.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Academic sources offer more specialized, higher-level information; they include books, articles, computer databases, and web resources.<\/li>\r\n\t<li>A fundamental responsibility is to evaluate the sources you choose to use in order to ensure that you are presenting accurate and up-to-date information in your speech.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>Exercises<\/h3>\r\n<ol>\r\n\t<li>Find an academic and a nonacademic source about the same topic. How is the writing style different? How useful is the content in each source? Which source has more authority? Why?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Download one of the freeware software packages for creating a research log for one of your speech preparations. Do you like using the software? Is the software cumbersome or helpful? Would you use the software for organizing other speeches or other research projects? Why?<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Find a politically oriented website and analyze the material using George\u2019s six questions for evaluating sources.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_014\" class=\"im_footnote\">George, M. W. (2008). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The elements of library research: What every student needs to know<\/em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.<\/span> What does your analysis say about the material on the website?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Differentiate between research time and speech preparation time.<\/li>\n<li>Understand how to establish research needs before beginning research.<\/li>\n<li>Explain the difference between academic and nonacademic sources.<\/li>\n<li>Identify appropriate nonacademic sources (e.g., books, special-interest periodicals, newspapers and blogs, and websites).<\/li>\n<li>Identify appropriate academic sources (e.g., scholarly books, scholarly articles, computerized databases, and scholarly information on the web).<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate George\u2019s (2008) six questions to analyze sources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the previous section we discussed what research was and the difference between primary and secondary research. In this section, we are going to explore how to develop a research strategy. Think of a research strategy as your personal map. The end destination is the actual speech, and along the way, there are various steps you need to complete to reach your destination: the speech. From the day you receive your speech assignment, the more clearly you map out the steps you need to take leading up to the date when you will give the speech, the easier your speech development process will be. In the rest of this section, we are going to discuss time management, determining your research needs, finding your sources, and evaluating your sources.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Allotting Time<\/h2>\n<p>First and foremost, when starting a new project, no matter how big or small, it is important to seriously consider how much time that project is going to take. To help us discuss the issue of time with regard to preparing your speech, we\u2019re going to examine what the Project Management Institute refers to as the <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">project life cycle<\/span><\/span>, or \u201cthe phases that connect the beginning of a project to its end.\u201d<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_007\" class=\"im_footnote\"><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Project Management Institute. (2004). A guide to the project management body of knowledge: PMBOK\u00ae guide (3rd ed.). Newton Square, PA: Author, p. 19.\" id=\"return-footnote-69-1\" href=\"#footnote-69-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Often in a public speaking class, the time you have is fairly concrete. You may have two or three weeks between speeches in a semester course or one to two weeks in a quarter course. In either case, from the moment your instructor gives you the assigned speech, the proverbial clock is ticking. With each passing day, you are losing precious time in your speech preparation process. Now, we realize that as a college student you probably have many things vying for your time in life: school, family, jobs, friends, or dating partners. For this reason, you need to really think through how much time it\u2019s going to take you to complete your preparation in terms of both research and speech preparation.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s01_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Research Time<\/h2>\n<p>The first step that takes a good chunk of your time is researching your speech. Whether you are conducting primary research or relying on secondary research sources, you\u2019re going to be spending a significant amount of time researching.<\/p>\n<p>As Howard and Taggart point out in their book <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Research Matters<\/em>, research is not just a one-and-done task.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_008\" class=\"im_footnote\"><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Howard, R. M., &amp; Taggart, A. R. (2010). Research matters. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 102\u2013103.\" id=\"return-footnote-69-2\" href=\"#footnote-69-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> As you develop your speech, you may realize that you want to address a question or issue that didn\u2019t occur to you during your first round of research, or that you\u2019re missing a key piece of information to support one of your points. For these reasons, it\u2019s always wise to allow extra time for targeted research later in your schedule.<\/p>\n<p>You also need to take into account the possibility of meeting with a research librarian. Although research librarians have many useful tips and tricks, they have schedules just like anyone else. If you know you are going to need to speak with a librarian, try to set up an appointment ahead of time for the date when you think you\u2019ll have your questions organized, and be ready to meet.<\/p>\n<p>A good rule of thumb is to devote no more than one-third of your speech preparation time to research (e.g., if you have three weeks before your speech date, your research should be done by the end of the first week). If you are not careful, you could easily end up spending all your time on research and waiting until the last minute to actually prepare your speech, which is highly inadvisable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s01_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Speech Preparation Time<\/h2>\n<p>The second task in speech preparation is to sit down and actually develop your speech. During this time period, you will use the information you collected during your research to fully flesh out your ideas into a complete speech. You may be making arguments using the research or creating visual aids. Whatever you need to complete during this time period, you need to give yourself ample time to actually prepare your speech. One common rule of thumb is one day of speech preparation per one minute of actual speaking time.<\/p>\n<p>By allowing yourself enough time to prepare your speech, you\u2019re also buffering yourself against a variety of things that can go wrong both in life and with your speech. Let\u2019s face it, life happens. Often events completely outside our control happen, and these events could negatively impact our ability to prepare a good speech. When you give yourself a little time buffer, you\u2019re already insulated from the possible negative effects on your speech if something goes wrong.<\/p>\n<p>The last part of speech preparation is practice. Although some try to say that practice makes perfect, we realize that perfection is never realistic because no one is perfect. We prefer this mantra: \u201cPractice makes permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And by \u201cpractice,\u201d we mean actual rehearsals in which you deliver your speech out loud. Speakers who only script out their speeches or only think through them often forget their thoughts when they stand in front of an audience. Research has shown that when individuals practice, their speech performance in front of an audience is more closely aligned with their practice than people who just think about their speeches. In essence, you need to allow yourself to become comfortable not only with the text of the speech but also with the nonverbal delivery of the speech, so giving yourself plenty of speech preparation time also gives you more practice time. We will discuss speech development and practice further in other chapters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Determining Your Needs<\/h2>\n<p>When starting your research, you want to start by asking yourself what you think you need. Obviously, you\u2019ll need to have a good idea about what your topic is before just randomly looking at information in a library or online. Your instructor may provide some very specific guidance for the type of information he or she wants to see in your speech, so that\u2019s a good place to start determining your basic needs.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have a general idea of your basic needs, you can start to ask yourself the following series of simple questions:<\/p>\n<ol id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s02_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist im_editable im_block\">\n<li>What do I, personally, know about my topic?<\/li>\n<li>Do I have any clear gaps in my knowledge of my topic?<\/li>\n<li>Do I need to conduct primary research for my speech?<\/li>\n<li>What type of secondary research do I need?\n<ol id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s02_l02\" class=\"im_orderedlist\">\n<li>Do I need research related to facts?<\/li>\n<li>Do I need research related to theories?<\/li>\n<li>Do I need research related to applications?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The clearer you are about the type of research you need at the onset of the research process, the easier it will be to locate specific information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Finding Resources<\/h2>\n<p>Once you have a general idea about the basic needs you have for your research, it\u2019s time to start tracking down your secondary sources. Thankfully, we live in a world that is swimming with information. Back in the decades when the authors of this textbook first started researching, we all had to go to a library and search through a physical card catalog to find books. If you wanted to research a topic in magazine or journal articles, you had to look up key terms in a giant book, printed annually, known as an index of periodicals. Researchers could literally spend hours in the library and find just one or two sources that were applicable to their topic.<\/p>\n<p>Today, on the other hand, information is quite literally at our fingertips. Not only is information generally more accessible, it is also considerably easier to access. In fact, we have the opposite problem from a couple of decades ago\u2014we have too much information at our fingertips. In addition, we now have to be more skeptical about where that information is coming from. In this section we\u2019re going to discuss how to find information in both nonacademic and academic sources.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Nonacademic Information Sources<\/h2>\n<p>Nonacademic information sources are sometimes also called popular press information sources; their primary purpose is to be read by the general public. Most nonacademic information sources are written at a sixth- to eighth-grade reading level, so they are very accessible. Although the information often contained in these sources is often quite limited, the advantage of using nonacademic sources is that they appeal to a broad, general audience.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Books<\/h2>\n<p>The first source we have for finding secondary information is books. Now, the authors of your text are admitted bibliophiles\u2014we love books. Fiction, nonfiction, it doesn\u2019t really matter, we just love books. And, thankfully, we live in a world where books abound and reading has never been easier. Unless your topic is very cutting-edge, chances are someone has written a book about your topic at some point in history.<\/p>\n<p>Historically, the original purpose of libraries was to house manuscripts that were copied by hand and stored in library collections. After Gutenberg created the printing press, we had the ability to mass produce writing, and the handwritten manuscript gave way to the printed manuscript. In today\u2019s modern era, we are seeing another change where printed manuscript is now giving way, to some extent, to the electronic manuscript. Amazon.com\u2019s Kindle, Barnes &amp; Noble\u2019s Nook, Apple\u2019s iPad, and Sony\u2019s e-Ink-based readers are examples of the new hardware enabling people to take entire libraries of information with them wherever they go. We now can carry the amount of information that used to be housed in the greatest historic libraries in the palms of our hands. When you sit back and really think about it, that\u2019s pretty darn cool!<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s world, there are three basic types of libraries you should be aware of: physical library, physical\/electronic library, and e-online library. The physical library is a library that exists only in the physical world. Many small community or county library collections are available only if you physically go into the library and check out a book. We highly recommend doing this at some point. Libraries today generally model the US Library of Congress\u2019s card catalog system. As such, most library layouts are similar. This familiar layout makes it much easier to find information if you are using multiple libraries. Furthermore, because the Library of Congress catalogs information by type, if you find one book that is useful for you, it\u2019s very likely that surrounding books on the same shelf will also be useful. When people don\u2019t take the time to physically browse in a library, they often miss out on some great information.<\/p>\n<p>The second type of library is the library that has both physical and electronic components. Most college and university libraries have both the physical stacks (where the books are located) and electronic databases containing e-books. The two largest e-book databases are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebrary.com\">ebrary<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.netlibrary.com\">NetLibrary<\/a>. Although these library collections are generally cost-prohibitive for an individual, more and more academic institutions are subscribing to them. Some libraries are also making portions of their collections available online for free: <a href=\"http:\/\/digitalcollections.harvard.edu\">Harvard University\u2019s Digital Collections<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ebooks.nypl.org\">New York Public Library\u2019s E-book Collection<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bl.uk\/onlinegallery\/ttp\/ttpbooks.html#\">The British Library\u2019s Online Gallery<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\">US Library of Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One of the greatest advantages to using libraries for finding books is that you can search not only their books, but often a wide network of other academic institutions\u2019 books as well. Furthermore, in today\u2019s world, we have one of the greatest online card catalogs ever created\u2014and it wasn\u2019t created for libraries at all! Retail bookseller sites like Amazon.com can be a great source for finding books that may be applicable to your topic, and the best part is, you don\u2019t actually need to purchase the book if you use your library, because your library may actually own a copy of a book you find on a bookseller site. You can pick a topic and then search for that topic on a bookseller site. If you find a book that you think may be appropriate, plug that book\u2019s title into your school\u2019s electronic library catalog. If your library owns the book, you can go to the library and pick it up today.<\/p>\n<p>If your library doesn\u2019t own it, do you still have an option other than buying the book? Yes: interlibrary loans. An <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">interlibrary loan<\/span><\/span> is a process where librarians are able to search other libraries to locate the book a researcher is trying to find. If another library has that book, then the library asks to borrow it for a short period of time. Depending on how easy a book is to find, your library could receive it in a couple of days or a couple of weeks. Keep in mind that interlibrary loans take time, so do not expect to get a book at the last minute. The more lead time you provide a librarian to find a book you are looking for, the greater the likelihood that the book will be sent through the mail to your library on time.<\/p>\n<p>The final type of library is a relatively new one, the library that exists only online. With the influx of computer technology, we have started to create vast stores of digitized content from around the world. These online libraries contain full-text documents free of charge to everyone. Some online libraries we recommend are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\">Project Gutenberg<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\">Google Books<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.readprint.com\">Read Print<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/openlibrary.org\">Open Library<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.getfreeebooks.com\">Get Free e-Books<\/a>. This is a short list of just a handful of the libraries that are now offering free e-content.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">General-Interest Periodicals<\/h2>\n<p>The second category of information you may seek out includes <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">general-interest periodicals<\/span><\/span>. These are magazines and newsletters published on a fairly systematic basis. Some popular magazines in this category include <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The New Yorker<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">People<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Parade<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Smithsonian<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Saturday Evening Post<\/em>. These magazines are considered \u201cgeneral interest\u201d because most people in the United States could pick up a copy of these magazines and find them interesting and topical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Special-Interest Periodicals<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Special-interest periodicals<\/span><\/span> are magazines and newsletters that are published for a narrower audience. In a 2005 article, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Business Wire<\/em> noted that in the United States there are over ten thousand different magazines published annually, but only two thousand of those magazines have significant circulation. <span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_009\" class=\"im_footnote\">Total number of magazines published in the US is greater than 10,000 but only about 2,000 have significant circulation. <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"(2005, September 21). Business Wire. Retrieved from http:\/\/findarticles.com.\" id=\"return-footnote-69-3\" href=\"#footnote-69-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Some more widely known special-interest periodicals are <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Sports Illustrated<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Bloomberg\u2019s Business Week<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Gentleman\u2019s Quarterly<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Vogue<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Popular Science<\/em>, and <em class=\"im_emphasis\">House and Garden<\/em>. But for every major magazine, there are a great many other lesser-known magazines like <em class=\"im_emphasis\">American Coin Op Magazine<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Varmint Hunter<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Shark Diver Magazine<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Pet Product News International<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Water Garden News<\/em>, to name just a few.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Newspapers and Blogs<\/h2>\n<p>Another major source of nonacademic information is newspapers and blogs. Thankfully, we live in a society that has a free press. We\u2019ve opted to include both newspapers and blogs in this category. A few blogs (e.g., <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Huffington Post<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Talkingpoints Memo<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">News Max<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Daily Beast<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Salon<\/em>) function similarly to traditional newspapers. Furthermore, in the past few years we\u2019ve lost many traditional newspapers around the United States; cities that used to have four or five daily papers may now only have one or two.<\/p>\n<p>According to newspapers.com, the top ten newspapers in the United States are <em class=\"im_emphasis\">USA Today<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Wall Street Journal<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">New York Times<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Los Angeles Times<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Washington Post<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">New York Daily News<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Chicago Tribune<\/em>, the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">New York Post<\/em>, <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Long Island Newsday<\/em>, and the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Houston Chronicle<\/em>. Most colleges and universities subscribe to a number of these newspapers in paper form or have access to them electronically. Furthermore, LexisNexis, a database many colleges and universities subscribe to, has access to full text newspaper articles from these newspapers and many more around the world.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to traditional newspapers, blogs are becoming a mainstay of information in today\u2019s society. In fact, since the dawn of the twenty-first century many major news stories have been broken by professional bloggers rather than traditional newspaper reporters.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_010\" class=\"im_footnote\"><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Ochman, B. L. (2007, June 29). The top 10 news stories broken by bloggers. TechNewsWorld. [Web log post]. Retrieved July 14, 2011, from http:\/\/www.mpdailyfix.com\/technewsworld-the-top-10-news-stories-broken-by-bloggers.\" id=\"return-footnote-69-4\" href=\"#footnote-69-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Although anyone can create a blog, there are many reputable blog sites that are run by professional journalists. As such, blogs can be a great source of information. However, as with all information on the Internet, you often have to wade through a lot of junk to find useful, accurate information.<\/p>\n<p>We do not personally endorse any blogs, but according to Technorati.com, the top ten most commonly read blogs in the world are as follows:<\/p>\n<ol id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s04_l01\" class=\"im_orderedlist im_editable im_block\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Huffington Post<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmodo.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Gizmodo<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.techcrunch.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">TechCrunch<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/corner.nationalreview.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Corner<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Mashable!<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.engadget.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Engadget<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Boing Boing<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gawker.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">Gawker<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Daily Beast<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tmz.com\"><em class=\"im_emphasis\">TMZ<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Encyclopedias<\/h2>\n<p>Another type of source that you may encounter is the encyclopedia. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Encyclopedias<\/span><\/span> are information sources that provide short, very general information about a topic. Encyclopedias are available in both print and electronic formats, and their content can range from eclectic and general (e.g., <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica<\/em>) to the very specific (e.g., <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture<\/em>, or <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena<\/em>). It is important to keep in mind that encyclopedias are designed to give only brief, fairly superficial summaries of a topic area. Thus they may be useful for finding out what something is if it is referenced in another source, but they are generally not a useful source for your actual speech. In fact, many instructors do not allow students to use encyclopedias as sources for their speeches for this very reason.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most popular online encyclopedic sources is Wikipedia. Like other encyclopedias, it can be useful for finding out basic information (e.g., what baseball teams did Catfish Hunter play for?) but will not give you the depth of information you need for a speech. Also keep in mind that Wikipedia, unlike the general and specialized encyclopedias available through your library, can be edited by anyone and therefore often contains content errors and biased information. If you are a fan of <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Colbert Report<\/em>, you probably know that host Stephen Colbert has, on several occasions, asked viewers to change Wikipedia content to reflect his views of the world. This is just one example of why one should always be careful of information on the web, but this advice is even more important when considering group-edited sites such as Wikipedia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s06\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Websites<\/h2>\n<p>Websites are the last major source of nonacademic information. In the twenty-first century we live in a world where there is a considerable amount of information readily available at our fingertips. Unfortunately, you can spend hours and hours searching for information and never quite find what you\u2019re looking for if you don\u2019t devise an Internet search strategy. First, you need to select a good search engine to help you find appropriate information. Table 1 &#8220;Search Engines&#8221; contains a list of common search engines and the types of information they are useful for finding.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s01_s06_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\n<p><span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 1.<\/span> Search Engines<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" style=\"border-spacing: 0px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.google.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"5\">General search engines<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.yahoo.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.yahoo.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.bing.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ask.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ask.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.about.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.about.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usa.gov\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.usa.gov<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Searches US government websites<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hon.ch\/MedHunt\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.hon.ch\/MedHunt<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Searches only trustworthy medical websites<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/medlineplus.gov\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/medlineplus.gov<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Largest search engine for medical related research<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bizrate.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.bizrate.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Comparison shopping search engine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ameristat.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ameristat.org<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Provides statistics about the US population<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/artcyclopedia.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/artcyclopedia.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Searches for art-related information<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flipdog.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.flipdog.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Searches for job postings across job search websites<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Academic Information Sources<\/h2>\n<p>After nonacademic sources, the second major source for finding information comes from academics. The main difference between academic or scholarly information and the information you get from the popular press is oversight. In the nonacademic world, the primary gatekeeper of information is the editor, who may or may not be a content expert. In academia, we have established a way to perform a series of checks to ensure that the information is accurate and follows agreed-upon academic standards. For example, this book, or portions of this book, were read by dozens of academics who provided feedback. Having this extra step in the writing process is time consuming, but it provides an extra level of confidence in the relevance and accuracy of the information. In this section, we will discuss scholarly books and articles, computerized databases, and finding scholarly information on the web.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Scholarly Books<\/h2>\n<p>College and university libraries are filled with books written by academics. According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taaonline.net\">Text and Academic Authors Association<\/a>\u00a0there are two types of scholarly books: textbooks and academic books. <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Textbooks<\/span><\/span> are books that are written about a segment of content within a field of academic study and are written for undergraduate or graduate student audiences. These books tend to be very specifically focused. Take this book, for instance. We are not trying to introduce you to the entire world of human communication, just one small aspect of it: public speaking. Textbooks tend to be written at a fairly easy reading level and are designed to transfer information in a manner that mirrors classroom teaching to some extent. Also, textbooks are secondary sources of information. They are designed to survey the research available in a particular field rather than to present new research.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">Academic books<\/span><\/span> are books that are primarily written for other academics for informational and research purposes. Generally speaking, when instructors ask for you to find scholarly books, they are referring to academic books. Thankfully, there are hundreds of thousands of academic books published on almost every topic you can imagine. In the field of communication, there are a handful of major publishers who publish academic books: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sagepub.com\">SAGE<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.routledge.com\">Routledge<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.josseybass.com\">Jossey-Bass<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pfeiffer.com\">Pfeiffer<\/a>, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apa.org\/pubs\/books\">American Psychological Association<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncastore.com\">National Communication Association<\/a>, among others. In addition to the major publishers who publish academic books, there are also many university presses who publish academic books: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunypress.edu\">SUNY Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oup.com\/us\">Oxford University Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sc.edu\/uscpress\">University of South Carolina Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylorpress.com\">Baylor University Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.press.uillinois.edu\">University of Illinois Press<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uapress.ua.edu\">University of Alabama Press<\/a>\u00a0are just a few of them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Scholarly Articles<\/h2>\n<p>Because most academic writing comes in the form of scholarly articles or journal articles, that is the best place for finding academic research on a given topic. Every academic subfield has its own journals, so you should never have a problem finding the best and most recent research on a topic. However, scholarly articles are written for a scholarly audience, so reading scholarly articles takes more time than if you were to read a magazine article in the popular press. It\u2019s also helpful to realize that there may be parts of the article you simply do not have the background knowledge to understand, and there is nothing wrong with that. Many research studies are conducted by quantitative researchers who rely on statistics to examine phenomena. Unless you have training in understanding the statistics, it is difficult to interpret the statistical information that appears in these articles. Instead, focus on the beginning part of the article where the author(s) will discuss previous research (secondary research), and then focus at the end of the article, where the author(s) explain what was found in their research (primary research).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Computerized Databases<\/h2>\n<p>Finding academic research is easier today than it ever has been in the past because of large computer databases containing research. Here\u2019s how these databases work. A database company signs contracts with publishers to gain the right to store the publishers\u2019 content electronically. The database companies then create thematic databases containing publications related to general areas of knowledge (business, communication, psychology, medicine, etc.). The database companies then sell subscriptions to these databases to libraries.<\/p>\n<p>The largest of these database companies is a group called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ebscohost.com\">EBSCO Publishing<\/a>, which runs both EBSCO Host (an e-journal provider) and NetLibrary (a large e-book library). Some of the more popular databases that EBSCO provides to colleges and universities are: Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, Communication and Mass Media Complete, Education Research Complete, Humanities International Complete, Philosopher\u2019s Index, Political Science Complete, PsycArticles, and Vocational and Career Collection. Academic Search Complete is the broadest of all the databases and casts a fairly wide net across numerous fields. Information that you find using databases can contain both nonacademic and academic information, so EBSCO Host has built in a number of filtering options to help you limit the types of information available.<\/p>\n<p>We strongly recommend checking out your library\u2019s website to see what databases they have available and if they have any online tutorials for finding sources using the databases to which your library subscribes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Scholarly Information on the Web<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the subscription databases that exist on the web, there are also a number of great sources for scholarly information on the web. As mentioned earlier, however, finding scholarly information on the web poses a problem because anyone can post information on the web. Fortunately, there are a number of great websites that attempt to help filter this information for us.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s02_s04_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\n<p><span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 2.<\/span> Scholarly Information on the Web<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" style=\"border-spacing: 0px;\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Website<\/th>\n<th>Type of Information<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.doaj.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.doaj.org<\/a><\/td>\n<td>The Directory of Open Access Journals is an online database of all freely available academic journals online.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/scholar.google.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/scholar.google.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Google Scholar attempts to filter out nonacademic information. Unfortunately, it tends to return a large number of for-pay site results.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cios.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.cios.org<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Communication Institute for Online Scholarship is a clearinghouse for online communication scholarship. This site contains full-text journals and books.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/xxx.lanl.gov\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/xxx.lanl.gov<\/a><\/td>\n<td>This is an open access site devoted to making physical science research accessible.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biomedcentral.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.biomedcentral.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td>BioMed Central provides open-access medical research.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.osti.gov\/eprints\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.osti.gov\/eprints<\/a><\/td>\n<td>The E-print Network provides access to a range of scholarly research that interests people working for the Department of Energy.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.freemedicaljournals.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.freemedicaljournals.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td>This site provides the public with free access to medical journals.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/highwire.stanford.edu\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/highwire.stanford.edu<\/a><\/td>\n<td>This is the link to Stanford University\u2019s free, full-text science archives.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.plosbiology.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.plosbiology.org<\/a><\/td>\n<td>This is the Public Library of Science\u2019s journal for biology.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.scirus.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.scirus.com<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Scrius is a search engine designed to allow researchers to search for journal content, scientists\u2019 homepages, courseware, and preprint material.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ipl.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.ipl.org<\/a><\/td>\n<td>The Internet Public Library provides subject guides, reference works, and a number of databases.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/vlib.org\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/vlib.org<\/a><\/td>\n<td>The WWW Virtual Library provides annotated lists of websites compiled by scholars in specific areas.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Tips for Finding Information Sources<\/h2>\n<p>Now that we\u2019ve given you plenty of different places to start looking for research, we need to help you sort through the research. In this section, we\u2019re going to provide a series of tips that should make this process easier and help you find appropriate information quickly. And here is our first tip: We cannot recommend Mary George\u2019s book <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know<\/em> more highly. Honestly, we wish this book had been around when we were just learning how to research.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Create a Research Log<\/h2>\n<p>Nothing is more disheartening than when you find yourself at 1:00 a.m. asking, \u201cHaven\u2019t I already read this?\u201d We\u2019ve all learned the tough lessons of research, and this is one that keeps coming back to bite us in the backside if we\u2019re not careful. According to a very useful book called <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Elements of Library Research<\/em> by M. W. George, a <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">research log<\/span><\/span> is a \u201cstep-by-step account of the process of identifying, obtaining, and evaluating sources for a specific project, similar to a lab note-book in an experimental setting.\u201d<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_011\" class=\"im_footnote\"><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"George, M. W. (2008). The elements of library research: What every student needs to know. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 183.\" id=\"return-footnote-69-5\" href=\"#footnote-69-5\" aria-label=\"Footnote 5\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[5]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In essence, George believes that keeping a log of what you\u2019ve done is very helpful because it can help you keep track of what you\u2019ve read thus far. You can use a good old-fashioned notebook, or if you carry around your laptop or netbook with you, you can always keep it digitally. While there are expensive programs like Microsoft Office OneNote that can be used for note keeping, there are also a number of free tools that could be adapted as well. The websites in Table 3 &#8220;Note-Taking Help&#8221; will help you find templates and tools for electronic note taking.<\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s01_t01\" class=\"im_table im_block\">\n<p><span class=\"im_title-prefix\">Table 3.<\/span> Note-Taking Help<\/p>\n<table cellpadding=\"0\" style=\"border-spacing: 0px;\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Website<\/th>\n<th>Type of Information<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">Templates<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uleth.ca\/lib\/guides\/research-log.doc\">University of Lethbridge<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Word Document template created by the University of Lethbridge<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.comcol.umass.edu\/dbc\/rtfs\/research_log_template.rtf\">University of Massachusetts at Amherst<\/a><\/td>\n<td>RTF file template created by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/departments\/library\/library_module\/unit3\/researchlog.doc\">Tarleton State University<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Word Document template created by Tarleton State University<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.uvm.edu\/~lkutner\/researchlogexampletemplate.doc\">University of Vermont<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Word Document template created by the University of Vermont<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/knowledgecenter.unr.edu\/instruction\/help\/liblog.rtf\">University of Nevada<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Word Document template created by the University of Nevada<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong class=\"im_emphasis im_bold\">Software Packages<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/office.microsoft.com\/en-us\/onenote\">Microsoft Office OneNote<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Microsoft Office OneNote comes with MS Office Professional or is free to try for thirty days. It is also available for forty-five dollars for students through an academic discount program. There is a free app version available for the iPhone or iPad.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.evernote.com\">Evernote<\/a><\/td>\n<td>Evernote has both a free version and a subscription version and is similar to MS OneNote. You can also get this one for your smart phone, iPad, or home computer (PC or MAC) and easily sync files between all of your electronic devices.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/notebook.zoho.com\/nb\/login.do?serviceurl=%2Fnb%2Findex.do\">Note-taking system<\/a><\/td>\n<td>This is an online, web-based note-taking system that has no cost.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/journler.com\">Note-taking software<\/a><\/td>\n<td>This is good note-taking software, but it currently costs $34.95 for a single-user subscription.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebrain.com\">The Brain<\/a><\/td>\n<td>If you\u2019re more of a visual organizer, The Brain offers a free program for visually organizing information. You can also purchase more expensive packages as necessary.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Start with Background Information<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s not unusual for students to try to jump right into the meat of a topic, only to find out that there is a lot of technical language they just don\u2019t understand. For this reason, you may want to start your research with sources written for the general public. Generally, these lower-level sources are great for background information on a topic and are helpful when trying to learn the basic vocabulary of a subject area.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Search Your Library\u2019s Computers<\/h2>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve started getting a general grasp of the broad content area you want to investigate, it\u2019s time to sit down and see what your school\u2019s library has to offer. If you do not have much experience in using your library\u2019s website, see if the website contains an online tutorial. Most schools offer online tutorials to show students the resources that students can access. If your school doesn\u2019t have an online tutorial, you may want to call your library and schedule an appointment with a research librarian to learn how to use the school\u2019s computers. Also, if you tell your librarian that you want to learn how to use the library, he or she may be able to direct you to online resources that you may have missed.<\/p>\n<p>Try to search as many different databases as possible. Look for relevant books, e-books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, journal articles, and media files. Modern college and university libraries have a ton of sources, and one search may not find everything you are looking for on the first pass. Furthermore, don\u2019t forget to think about synonyms for topics. The more synonyms you can generate for your topic, the better you\u2019ll be at finding information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Learn to Skim<\/h2>\n<p>If you sit down and try to completely read every article or book you find, it will take you a very long time to get through all the information. Start by reading the introductory paragraphs. Generally, the first few paragraphs will give you a good idea about the overall topic. If you\u2019re reading a research article, start by reading the abstract. If the first few paragraphs or abstract don\u2019t sound like they\u2019re applicable, there\u2019s a good chance the source won\u2019t be useful for you. Second, look for highlighted, italicized, or bulleted information. Generally, authors use highlighting, italics, and bullets to separate information to make it jump out for readers. Third, look for tables, charts, graphs, and figures. All these forms are separated from the text to make the information more easily understandable for a reader, so seeing if the content is relevant is a way to see if it helps you. Fourth, look at headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings show you how an author has grouped information into meaningful segments. If you read the headings and subheadings and nothing jumps out as relevant, that\u2019s another indication that there may not be anything useful in that source. Lastly, take good notes while you\u2019re skimming. One way to take good notes is to attach a sticky note to each source. If you find relevant information, write that information on the sticky note along with the page number. If you don\u2019t find useful information in a source, just write \u201cnothing\u201d on the sticky note and move on to the next source. This way when you need to sort through your information, you\u2019ll be able to quickly see what information was useful and locate the information. Other people prefer to create a series of note cards to help them organize their information. Whatever works best for you is what you should use.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Read Bibliographies\/Reference Pages<\/h2>\n<p>After you\u2019ve finished reading useful sources, see who those sources cited on their bibliographies or reference pages. We call this method <span class=\"im_margin_term\"><span class=\"im_glossterm\">backtracking<\/span><\/span>. Often the sources cited by others can lead us to even better sources than the ones we found initially.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s03_s03_s06\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Ask for Help<\/h2>\n<p>Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for help. As we said earlier in this chapter, reference librarians are your friends. They won\u2019t do your work for you, but they are more than willing to help if you ask.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Evaluating Resources<\/h2>\n<p>The final step in research occurs once you\u2019ve found resources relevant to your topic: evaluating the quality of those resources. Below is a list of six questions to ask yourself about the sources you\u2019ve collected; these are drawn from the book <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The Elements of Library Research<\/em> by M. W. George.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_012\" class=\"im_footnote\"><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"George, M. W. (2008). The elements of library research: What every student needs to know. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.\" id=\"return-footnote-69-6\" href=\"#footnote-69-6\" aria-label=\"Footnote 6\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s01\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">What Is the Date of Publication?<\/h2>\n<p>The first question you need to ask yourself is the date of the source\u2019s publication. Although there may be classic studies that you want to cite in your speech, generally, the more recent the information, the better your presentation will be. As an example, if you want to talk about the current state of women\u2019s education in the United States, relying on information from the 1950s that debated whether \u201ccoeds\u201d should attend class along with male students is clearly not appropriate. Instead you\u2019d want to use information published within the past five to ten years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s02\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Who Is the Author?<\/h2>\n<p>The next question you want to ask yourself is about the author. Who is the author? What are her or his credentials? Does he or she work for a corporation, college, or university? Is a political or commercial agenda apparent in the writing? The more information we can learn about an author, the better our understanding and treatment of that author\u2019s work will be. Furthermore, if we know that an author is clearly biased in a specific manner, ethically we must tell our audience members. If we pretend an author is unbiased when we know better, we are essentially lying to our audience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s03\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Who Is the Publisher?<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to knowing who the author is, we also want to know who the publisher is. While there are many mainstream publishers and academic press publishers, there are also many fringe publishers. For example, maybe you\u2019re reading a research report published by the Cato Institute. While the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cato.org\">Cato Institute<\/a> may sound like a regular publisher, it is actually a libertarian think tank. As such, you can be sure that the information in its publications will have a specific political bias. While the person writing the research report may be an upstanding author with numerous credits, the Cato Institute only publishes reports that adhere to its political philosophy. Generally, a cursory examination of a publisher\u2019s website is a good indication of the specific political bias. Most websites will have an \u201cAbout\u201d section or an \u201cFAQ\u201d section that will explain who the publisher is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s04\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Is It Academic or Nonacademic?<\/h2>\n<p>The next question you want to ask yourself is whether the information comes from an academic or a nonacademic source. Because of the enhanced scrutiny academic sources go through, we argue that you can generally rely more on the information contained in academic sources than nonacademic sources. One very notorious example of the difference between academic versus nonacademic information can be seen in the problem of popular-culture author John Gray, author of <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus<\/em>. Gray, who received a PhD via a correspondence program from Columbia Pacific University in 1982, has written numerous books on the topic of men and women. Unfortunately, the academic research on the subject of sex and gender differences is often very much at odds with Gray\u2019s writing. For a great critique of Gray\u2019s writings, check out Julia Wood\u2019s article in the <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Southern Communication Journal<\/em>.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_013\" class=\"im_footnote\"><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Wood, J. T. (2002). A critical response to John Gray\u2019s Mars and Venus portrayals of men and women. Southern Communication Journal, 67, 201\u2013210.\" id=\"return-footnote-69-7\" href=\"#footnote-69-7\" aria-label=\"Footnote 7\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Ultimately, we strongly believe that using academic publications is always in your best interest because they generally contain the most reliable information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s05\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">What Is the Quality of the Bibliography\/Reference Page?<\/h2>\n<p>Another great indicator of a well-thought-out and researched source is the quality of its bibliography or reference page. If you look at a source\u2019s bibliography or reference page and it has only a couple of citations, then you can assume that either the information was not properly cited or it was largely made up by someone. Even popular-press books can contain great bibliographies and reference pages, so checking them out is a great way to see if an author has done her or his homework prior to writing a text. As noted above, it is also an excellent way to find additional resources on a topic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"wrench_1.0-ch07_s02_s04_s06\" class=\"im_section\">\n<h2 class=\"im_title im_editable im_block\">Do People Cite the Work?<\/h2>\n<p>The last question to ask about a source is, \u201cAre other people actively citing the work?\u201d One way to find out whether a given source is widely accepted is to see if numerous people are citing it. If you find an article that has been cited by many other authors, then clearly the work has been viewed as credible and useful. If you\u2019re doing research and you keep running across the same source over and over again, that is an indication that it\u2019s an important study that you should probably take a look at. Many colleges and universities also subscribe to Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), which are run through <a href=\"http:\/\/isiwebofknowledge.com\">Institute for Scientific Information\u2019s Web of Knowledge<\/a> database service. All these databases help you find out where information has been cited by other researchers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-success\">\n<h3>Key Takeaways<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>In conducting research for a speech, commit adequate time and plan your schedule. Consider both the research time, or time spent gathering information, and the preparation time needed to organize and practice your speech.<\/li>\n<li>Get a general idea of your research needs even before going to the library so that you can take the most advantage of the library\u2019s resources and librarians\u2019 help.<\/li>\n<li>We live in a world dominated by information, but some information is filtered and some is not. It\u2019s important to know the difference between academic and nonacademic sources.<\/li>\n<li>Nonacademic sources are a good place to gain general knowledge of a topic; these include books, general or special-interest periodicals, newspapers and blogs, and websites.<\/li>\n<li>Academic sources offer more specialized, higher-level information; they include books, articles, computer databases, and web resources.<\/li>\n<li>A fundamental responsibility is to evaluate the sources you choose to use in order to ensure that you are presenting accurate and up-to-date information in your speech.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>Exercises<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Find an academic and a nonacademic source about the same topic. How is the writing style different? How useful is the content in each source? Which source has more authority? Why?<\/li>\n<li>Download one of the freeware software packages for creating a research log for one of your speech preparations. Do you like using the software? Is the software cumbersome or helpful? Would you use the software for organizing other speeches or other research projects? Why?<\/li>\n<li>Find a politically oriented website and analyze the material using George\u2019s six questions for evaluating sources.<span id=\"wrench_1.0-fn07_014\" class=\"im_footnote\">George, M. W. (2008). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The elements of library research: What every student needs to know<\/em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.<\/span> What does your analysis say about the material on the website?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-69\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Anonymous. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Anonymous. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/public-speaking-practice-and-ethics\/\">http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/public-speaking-practice-and-ethics\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section><hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-69-1\">Project Management Institute. (2004). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">A guide to the project management body of knowledge: PMBOK\u00ae guide<\/em> (3rd ed.). Newton Square, PA: Author, p. 19. <a href=\"#return-footnote-69-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-69-2\">Howard, R. M., &amp; Taggart, A. R. (2010). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Research matters<\/em>. New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 102\u2013103. <a href=\"#return-footnote-69-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-69-3\">(2005, September 21). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Business Wire<\/em>. Retrieved from <a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/findarticles.com\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/findarticles.com<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-69-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-69-4\">Ochman, B. L. (2007, June 29). The top 10 news stories broken by bloggers. <em class=\"im_emphasis\">TechNewsWorld.<\/em> [Web log post]. Retrieved July 14, 2011, from <a class=\"im_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mpdailyfix.com\/technewsworld-the-top-10-news-stories-broken-by-bloggers\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.mpdailyfix.com\/technewsworld-the-top-10-news-stories-broken-by-bloggers<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-69-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-69-5\">George, M. W. (2008). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The elements of library research: What every student needs to know<\/em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 183. <a href=\"#return-footnote-69-5\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 5\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-69-6\">George, M. W. (2008). <em class=\"im_emphasis\">The elements of library research: What every student needs to know<\/em>. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. <a href=\"#return-footnote-69-6\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 6\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-69-7\">Wood, J. T. (2002). A critical response to John Gray\u2019s Mars and Venus portrayals of men and women. <em class=\"im_emphasis\">Southern Communication Journal, 67<\/em>, 201\u2013210. <a href=\"#return-footnote-69-7\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 7\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":9,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics\",\"author\":\"Anonymous\",\"organization\":\"Anonymous\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2012books.lardbucket.org\/books\/public-speaking-practice-and-ethics\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-69","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":66,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/69\/revisions\/396"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/66"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/69\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-fmcc-standupspeakout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}