Chapter 7: Gathering Materials

What are the principles of effective interviewing?

-what to do before the interview -during -after

What is an academic database?

a database that catalogs articles from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals -Academic OneFile (scholarly articles), JSTOR (academic journals), Google Scholar (scholarly literature)

What are the 3 criteria to help distinguish between the jewels and the junk on the Internet?

authorship, sponsorship, and recency

What is the importance of a subject heading for research notes?

first step to more efficient note taking by telling you at a glance what each note is about to simplify organizing notes when you start composing the speech

Your knowledge is drawn on what?

personal experience, which can convey points more meaningfully

An interview conducted to gather information for a speech

research interview

an organization that, in the absence of a clearly identified author, is responsible for the content of a document on the Internet

sponsoring organization

How do you take research notes efficiently?

take plenty of notes, record in consistent format and include the note, source of note, and a heading as the subject of the note, make a separate entry for each note/quotation/piece of information, distinguish among direct quotations, paraphrases, and your own ideas to help avoid plagiarism

What are newspaper and periodical databases?

easy access, a research aid that catalogues articles from a large number of magazines, journals, and newspapers

What are questions to avoid asking in a research interview?

questions you can answer without the interview, leading questions, hostile, loaded questions

When you need information about people in the news, you can turn to one of the many reference works that contain brief life and career facts about men and women in a ___________

biographical aid

A number used in libraries to classify books and periodicals and to indicate where they can be found on the shelves

call number

What are some helpful government resources?

-USA.gov- US government information -United States Census Bureau- statistical information on all aspects of American life -World Factbook- published annually by CIA, information on every country in the world

What are 5 steps to take before an interview?

-define the purpose -decide whom to interview -arrange the interview -decide whether to record or not- gives exact record for direct quotes and important facts, still take notes, have to have consent -prepare your questions (neutral, intelligent, meaningful)- arrange in order you want to ask them and take the list with you to interview

How can you use search engines to effectively find materials on the Internet?

-develop a search strategy that will allow you to zero in precisely on the information required for your speech -narrow your search

What are steps to take during a research interview?

-dress appropriately and be on time to confirm you regard interview as serious -repeat purpose of interview to get clearer answers -set up recorder, if using one- should be casual and inconspicuous (cell phones) -keep on track- pursue new leads when they appear, improvise follow-up questions when called for, then move on again in orderly fashion -listen carefully -don't overstay your welcome, keep within time period, thank the person you interview for taking the time to talk

What should you look for on the Internet regarding authorship?

-if the author is clearly identified, their qualifications, an expert or not, objective and unbiased data -need information on credentials to cite an electronic work -if you can't find the author in the document, look for a link to author's homepage or another site explaining author's credentials -search author, if they are an accepted authority on the subject, their credentials/publications will turn up

What is a catalogue?

a listing of all the books, periodicals, and other resources owned by a library -can search for books by author, title, subject, or keyword -tells you whether a book is checked out or not

What is an abstract?

a summary of a magazine or journal article, written by someone other than the original author, don't cite the article on the basis of the abstract alone

What is a reference work?

a work that synthesizes a large amount of related information for easy access by researchers and is in the reference section of the library -encyclopedia, yearbook, quotation book, biographical aids

What are some examples of library resources?

librarians, catalogues, reference works, newspaper and periodic databases, academic databases

How is the Internet different than the library?

no central information desk, no librarians, no catalogue, no reference section, does not have same range and depth as a good library -use Internet to supplement, not replace, library research -anyone with a computer/Internet access can publish an electronic newsletter, create a personal Web page

a list compiled early in the research process of works that look as if they might contain helpful information about a speech topic

preliminary bibliography

Internet searches include:

search engines, specialized research resources

What are some questions to consider when evaluating Internet documents?

-Is the author of the document clearly identified? -If identified, is she or he an expert on the topic? -If an expert, can his/her opinions be accepted as objective and unbiased? -If not identified, can the sponsoring organization be determined? -Does the sponsoring organization have a reputation for expertise and objectivity? -Does the document include a copyright date, publication date, or date of last revision? -If a date is included, is the document recent enough to cite in my speech?

How do you determine if a recent source is good to use on the Internet?

-look for a copyright date, publication date, or date or last revision at the top or bottom of the document -once you know the date, you can determine whether it is current enough to use (never cite statistics from an undated source) -if you can't find the date, search for another work -if you are using a source located through a campus library, you can usually be confident of its reliability

What steps should you take after a research interview?

-review your notes ASAP to find main points emerged and pull out specific, useful information -transcribe notes to be the same format as the rest of research notes to help with speech organization

What are some tips for doing research?

-start early -make a preliminary bibliography, MLA or APA -take notes efficiently -think about your materials as you research to give you new insights into your topic

What specialized research resources on the Internet can be helpful and how?

-usually, there exists a specially crafted site relating to your research area -include government resources, Wikipedia

Published annually, contain large amount of current information that would otherwise be impossible to track down

yearbook -ex. Facts on File and World Almanac and Book of Facts

What are the 3 major library databases?

-ProQuest- periodicals and newspapers -LexisNexis Academic- magazines, legal documents, TV broadcast transcripts, newspapers -World News Digest- news articles from 1940 to present

What are some things to look for on the Internet regarding sponsorship?

-include businesses, government agencies, public interest groups -judge whether it is impartial, economically unbiased, accurate, and fair-minded enough to cite in your speech -type its name in Google: if there are serious questions about the organization, they will usually surface in the first few pages of results, also check About link on organization's homepage and see if they identify site's founders, purpose, and/or philosophy -don't use the document if you can't verify the credentials of author or identify a credible sponsoring organization -Consumers Union, Common Cause, the American Cancer Society, National Archives, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have strong reputations -RAND, Cato Institute, and Brookings Institution are private think tanks with political leanings but well respected for quality of research

What are the pros and cons of Wikipedia?

-it is a good place to start learning about a topic, but not a good place to end -convenient, major articles are followed by an extensive set of additional resources, like footnotes, reference lists, external links, videos/images -do not rely on for sole source of information

the biggest encyclopedia in human history, with over 5.5 million articles in English alone and the 5th most visited Web site in the world

Wikipedia