Research Sources

Research may be the most important part of a research paper. Writing guide "Envision in Depth" describes the process of finding and using credible sources.

There are three important goals to keep in mind when researching a source. A researching is trying to find the topic the source is discussing, how it is being discussed, and keep it in context by learning what the different positions of the topic are. 

It is important to remember that a research paper will come from the culmination of the research on a number of different sources. One will add their own voice to many others that he/she has researched and learned. This notion that a research paper is only a small part of the research is called the iceberg of research.

When discovering sources, one should mentally divide them into two categories: primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are sources that one will analyze and probably reference directly in the research paper. Secondary sources offer perspective on the subject that give the researcher knowledge, context, and perspective on the topic. They will give the researcher a better understanding of the topic, like a lens to look at the primary sources through.

The best way to find primary sources is places where documents and written sources are archived. The library is the most basic way, however places such as museums and city halls can prove to provide effective primary sources.

Secondary sources are found primarily in the reference section of the library (where encyclopedias and guides can be found) and in archives such as online databases.

When researching on databases, the web, or a library catalog, it is helpful to make a list of search terms for each. These should be specific, not general and inclusive. If a person is researching social media, it may be best to use the word "Facebook" because sources that mentioning Facebook are probably about social media. Searching with the words "social media" would yield many extraneous sources because sources that have the words "social" and "media" could be focussing on many things other than social media.

Evaluating sources effectively is essential for a credible research paper. The source that requires the most skepticism is a website. First one should evaluate the author and source. Personal websites are unlikely to be credible, it is best to find a source from a credible author on the website of a credible institution.

Library and database sources should be evaluated with rhetorical analysis. One should try to find the purpose, focus, and audience of the source. An opinion based book by an unqualified author would not constitute a credible source. Other sources may be well written with legitimate facts and citations in them, but written for the purpose of entertainment, such as a book by a political pundit. 

Field research should be analyzed for the requirements of a legitimate study. If the study only looks at a portion of the data or conducted the research without using reliable methods (such as a large sample size, random samples, and diverse samples), it is not credible. 

Lastly, it is a good idea to make an annotated bibliography as research progresses. This way a researcher can list his/her sources with notes on each source and how it could be used in the research paper.

This is the process and methods that "Envision in Depth" details about how to effectively find and evaluate research sources.

Planning a Research Paper

"Envision in Depth" contains a method for planning and proposing a research argument. It is a process that is made to give a person a solid base for a subject of a research paper.

The first thing a person should do is have a research log. This is to be used from the beginning of the research process to the end. It is a tool to gather information, take notes, and organize one's ideas.

The first action one must take is to select a topic or theme and to establish the parameters of this subject. Also consider what kind of research this topic will require. Next, one should make a set of questions about the final argument. These questions will be used to guide one's research and work.

The next step is to clarify one's topic. This can be done through prewriting.  The main purpose of prewriting is to organize the topics and areas of one's subject according to how they relate to each other. This is most easily done through visual or graphic brainstorming, which is mapping or webbing the ideas in relation to one another. After this, one should choose and topic and the ideas directly related to it for a topic for his/her research paper.

Next is the step of planning research. Free-writing is a good place to start. Free-writing should be done in the research log, and should have three major sections or paragraphs. The first is for explaining the topic and stating one's thesis. Next one should identify the sources he/she plans on using. Lastly, one should consider problems that may arise while researching the topic and consider ways to avoid or overcome them.

The next way to plan research should be to develop a hypothesis--a thesis that is argumentative and provable through the research one will be doing.

Finally, it is a good idea to make a research proposal, a method used in many professions. It should include the elements of background information one already knows about the topic, methods for researching the topic, the sources that will be used, a schedule to research effectively, and the significance of one's research paper.

All these steps, guided by one's interest in the subject, is an effective start of writing a research paper.

Parker's Paper

Stephanie Parker writes a solid research paper on the overcoming of traditional cultural barriers by the use of technology. Her introduction is in the form of a narrative, which is very appropriate for her topic. Her paper is about individuals becoming involved in Asian culture while they are elsewhere, and her introduction is interesting and relevant because it focuses on those individuals. If they were not mentioned in the paper, the paper would seem generalized and dull. By choosing this tool in her introduction, she immediately relates her topic to the reader.

She follows this by describing how these people are a part of a cultural cyber-community. Later in her paper, she brings statements from various outside sources into her paper. The legitimacy and influence of these communities are confirmed by various sources that Parker pulls into her paper.

She then focuses on the most popular platform for these cyber-communities to exist--Soompi, a chatroom for cultural discussion. She uses statistics about the site to give the reader a concept of how popular the site is, reinforcing her point that technology is helping people overcome cultural barriers.

She continues to narrow her focus, bringing individual users of Soompi into the picture. She uses their testimonies of their experience on Soompi to reinforce its influence and to make it understandable to the reader. As her paper draws to a close, she uses the final example of an celebrity on Soompi to emphasize how much influence on culture one person can have.

Parker lets her solid examples of online cultural development speak for themselves, finally concluding that the separation of cultures by distance is shrinking more than ever.

Racebook?

Danah Boyd argues that race influences if a person chooses to use MySpace or Facebook. While there might be some truth in his argument, he does not acknowledge any other reasons for this correlation.

Boyd commences his article discussing the pressure for teenagers to use a social networking website. This is used as the foundation for his argument because it shows why his argument is relevant. He then goes on to list the differences between MySpace and Facebook, explaining how people with different styles have different preferences. He concludes by stating that race is related to culture, and different cultures prefer different styles and therefore either Facebook or MySpace.

By constructing his article this way, he goes from one point to another and connects them logically. In reality, preferences of style have much less to do with certain racial or ethnic groups preferring MySpace or Facebook. People of different races often live in different areas. In many cities, as the author pointed out, there are communities that consist mostly of black people. In many rural areas, like where I grew up in New Hampshire, nearly everyone is white. There are predominantly Mexican communities in southern California. If one of these communities starts to choose either Facebook or MySpace, the other people in that community will follow because the social networks are about community. It is a similar situation with cell phone service providers. Many offer free texting or minutes to other people in the network, so many communities are mostly one network or another. It does not mean that one race prefers one network or another. Saying that people of different ethnicities have different cultures and that is why many choose mostly Facebook or Myspace is an exaggeration.

Beauty

The article argues that advertisements give women the wrong image of beauty and causes them to strive for an unreachable goal for their bodies. The author worked with dove to run a campaign to change the perception of beauty. She claims that the campaign was off to a good start changing the industry, but this is unrealistic. While her cause is good, it does not have a chance of changing the industry.

The reason the beauty industry tries to creates a higher, unrealistic expectation of beauty is because it is trying to make money. If women are content with their appearance, there is no need for them to purchase beauty products. Most women buy their certain beauty products and use them consistently, buying them on a regular basis. The more content a woman is with her appearance, the less products she will buy on a regular basis.

Dove's campaign was probably headed by people who actually cared about the matter, as the author conveyed, but the movement still was approved by the company. It was a business decision to use regular people with their own unique beauty in their advertisements. Running such a campaign could only give the company positive press, and perhaps give them the image as the healthy beauty company in the beauty industry.

This is where dove may have succeeded--improving their own image, not the image of women.

Generation Gap

David Pogue wrote an article for the New York Times about websites for sharing photos in which he evaluated a number of different services. He uses two hooks to catch the reader. The first is his reference to casual instant messaging lingo. Some younger people are comfortable with it and some older people are confused by it, but both are familiar with the social barrier it creates. The next hook he uses is a anecdote about his mother wanting prints of photos and her struggle to get them using an online service because of her unfamiliarity with technology. This is a story almost anyone can relate to, having been on either side of a similar situation.

Pogue's role as narrator shifts after his introduction as he begins to evaluate the different online photo services. The format of his writing also changes. His article divides into different sections, a section for each web service he evaluates. This organized structure gives a reader looking for quick information on certain services an easy way to read what he/she wants to. Pogue becomes a subjective evaluator, but keeps his casual, conversational voice to make the evaluations easily understood as well as to relate to points he made using the same voice as narrator.

While the article is an evaluation of photo sharing services, Pogue is also offering his insight into how people do things is changing. Many of the services he evaluates simply do not meet his standards. While he understands the process of sharing, his mom did not, and sharing was therefore difficult. Overall Pogue acknowledges that times are changing, but his disappointed in the amount of adjustment that requires.

The Camera is for the Smiles

Lenore Skenazy argues that people should not smile for the camera--that is, use cameras only to capture positive things. Skenazy claims the purpose of family photos is to create a whole mythology for a family, to record a family history. Because of this, he believes families shouldn't only pull out the camera when something good is happening, but should record life the way it is. The notion that family photos are to record family history is not true, and therefore they should not be used to capture the good and the bad.

The truth is that photos are a way to preserve memories. The notion that photo books are records of family history is only an exaggeration because there is some truth to it in the sense that an album should have some accuracy. If family albums contained entirely set up, staged pictures, it would not reflect actual memories. People remember an event, not posing for the picture at the event, and while it may help people remember who they were with, a staged group photo may not help keep the actual memories alive.

People only want to preserve their good memories, however. Not taking a photo of a bad incident is alright because the purpose is to preserve a memory, and while the bad times shouldn't be forgotten, they do not need to constantly recalled.

Photos and videos should capture moments accurately because their purpose is to preserve the clarity of memories. They do not need, however, to capture the bad moments along with the good, because their purpose is not to keep a historically accurate record of a family.