Blake Arvon, Jeana Spiker, Hanna Owens
II.
One way to find information on a topic or question one is researching, and the
information is not necessarily scholarly. One could find it in the news media outlets. You could
search the library databases. One database that would be valuable to your research is the World
News Digest. It contains tons of news articles and news cast from all across the globe. This
would help if you had a topic on world leaders or governments.
This information is not necessarily scholarly because it is produced from investing and
researching the topic at hand. Although, you have to watch out and look for the completely
biased parts of the news, it needs to be straight facts with little opinions involved. It is reliable
though because the information is produced straight from the events at hand, and there are other
news outlets that can verify that same information or story.
The difference between this information and scholarly information is those news casts are
not reviewed by a bunch of experts in the field. It is produced by going and researching and
getting all the facts. They then produce it to the people. Scholarly reviewed information is
reviewed and revised by a lot of experts in the field. They continue to do this until they feel the
information is correct and well researched and developed.
The question that we had was how do you find out if Barack Obama is the best or worst
U.S. president? What better way to find information about the president then through news
articles and videos taken directly from the events he is involved with? It is not necessarily
scholarly and more than likely not biased free, but the facts are all there and able to help with our
research.
III.
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Barack was the son of a
Kenyan father and white mother, who later divorced when he was only two years old. He then
spent part of his childhood in Indonesia where his mother remarried. At the age of 10 he moved
back to Hawaii and was raised by his maternal grandparents, while his mother and step-father
stayed in Indonesia. He studied at Occidental University in Los Angeles from 1979-1981. He
then went on to graduate from Columbia University in 1983 as well as Harvard Law School in
1991. The Harvard Law Review accepted Barack Obama as their first African American
president of the association. During the year of 1992 Obama was in charge of a voter registration
campaign which helped Carol Moseley Brown become the first African American woman in the
United States Senate. The year of 1995 was when he published an autobiography, Dreams from
My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. In the same year he lectured at the University of
Chicago on the topic of constitutional law. In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois Senate as a
member of the Democratic Party. In doing so, he served the Illinois Senate from 1996-2004.
Obama lost a primary race for Congress to Bobby Rush in 2000. However, in 2004 Barack won
the U.S. Senate seat, beating Republican Alan Keyes.
Obama was elected on November 4, 2008 with 53% of the popular vote. When Barack Hussein
Obama was sworn in on January 20, 2009, he became not only the 44th President of the United
States, but he also became the first African American to hold the Presidential position. In
February of 2009, he came through with an $800 billion economic stimulus package. Obama’s
desire for “change” landed him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for trying to make international
diplomacy stronger.
I found this information by going to the MULibraries reference databases and using the
CREDO Reference Database to find information on President Barack Obama. Our problem at
hand is Obama a good or bad president. Since we needed unbiased information I used this
database, because it only contains the facts. Someone else’s opinion is not inserted into any of
the articles I read which makes my sources unbiased to the fullest. The information provided has
been edited and reviewed by experts which makes in a credible source. Almost every article I
read was published within the last couple years and even the last couple months. According to
the information I found, it still cannot be determined as to whether or not Barack Obama is a
good or bad president. One would have to look at their own views and see if they agree with the
views of our president. Even though that is not solid evidence for determining the value of our
president, that is the only way it can really be decided since everyone has different views and
opinions. Even so, take all the facts into consideration when making your decision.
IV.
In the book, The American Journey of Barack Obama, it describes all aspects of the
current president’s life. The writers start all the way back from the beginning of Obama’s life as
a child. They go in depth on things that have occurred during this time in his life. They go into
detail on his life as an editor for The Harvard Law Review, and they tell about when he was a
Chicago Activist. Towards the end of the book, it discusses the aspects of his historic run for
presidency.
It tells of how and why it was so memorable and important to the United States. This
book is filled with pictures to document and help the reader grasp all that the book is talking
about. It is a book of little or no bias. It is more of Biography of Barack Obama’s life and
political career. These writer of, The American Journey of Barack Obama, just wanted to
document and tell of this historic moment in U.S. history and of Obama’s impact on the lives of
the Americans.
The purpose of using, The American Journey of Barack Obama, for the question of is he
the best or worst president that the United States has ever had, is twofold. It is to inform the
reader of the life and political career of President Barack Obama, but it is also to give an
overview of Barack Obama himself. This is useful in being able to see how he has changed since
becoming president, and does he stand up to what he claimed he would accomplish. On the
other hand, you can see if Obama has changed any from what he asserted to be when first
elected.
The publisher of this book is Little Brown and Company. This is a commercial publisher
company and was created in 1837. It publishes nonfiction and fiction novels. The company
boasts to have published some of America’s greatest writers such as Louisa May Alcott. The
corporate authors are from Life Magazine. This is a very well viewed and respected magazine.
The writers of this particular book have done extensive research and investigating to get all the
truths and stories to Barack Obama’s life. They did this to simply document a historic change in
United States politics. There is very little bias, if not none at all. The book is also in logical
order and easy to follow. The pictures help you grasp what all that you are reading.
This book was published in 2008. It is a little out-of-date, but not so much that it does not
seem too reputable to the question at hand. Though it was completed and published early in the
president’s career. It still is able to give you a glimpse at how he started out. This way you can
compare and contrast it to the current today. You can see if he has been consistent in all that he
has done as president, and you can then make a inform decision on, if he is the worst or best
president of the United States.
The authors of the book are all very well respected writers. They are not necessarily
experts in the field of politics, but they are very good researchers. This also helps to remove any
bias because they are simply researching and writing about the facts that they have found. The
bibliography looked to be well put together, and that they had done their research. All in all, this
book is useful to the question given, and can help you in deciding if Barack Obama is the best or
worst president.
V.
In the debate against whether President Obama is a successful leader or not will always be
a controversial issue. In the text provided for our assignment it states that two family members
are arguing about the presidency; one says Obama is the worst and the other commands he is the
best. The first article will summarize why President Obama has greatly impacted our society.
These Remarks are by the President himself about the Middle East and North Africa which was
delivered at the state department in Washington D.C, May 19th 2011. Although Obama has
succeeded to accomplish many tasks for our country this article is appropriate for this topic
because it talks about the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, which will always be remembered
as an outstanding victory for President Obama.
In the article it states that Obama has already done a great deal to shift the foreign policy
followed by a decade of defined costly conflicts. But, after years of war in Iraq, he has removed
100,000 American Troops and ended our combat mission there. In Afghanistan, he’s broken the
Taliban momentum, and this July he began to bring our troops home and continue a transition to
Afghan lead. And after many years of trying to settle the score with the war against al Qaeda and
its comrades, Obama has taken a huge step forward by sending special teams inside al Qaeda and
taking care of one of America’s most wanted terrorists, Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden was a cruel
and sinful leader to his people; he was a mass murderer and only sought change through violence
towards men, women, and children. Obama has taken matters into his own hands and drastically
succeeded. This article has its name for one reason which was seen through President Obama’s
eyes. “On December 17th, a young vendor named Mohammed Bouzaizi was devastated when a
police officer took his cart from him. This was not out of the ordinary. It’s the same type of
humiliation that takes place every day in many parts of this world; the relentless tyranny of
governments that deny their citizens dignity. Only this time, something different happened. After
local officials’ refused to hear his complaints, this young man, who had never been very active in
politics, went to the headquarters of the provincial government, soaked him in fuel, and lit him
on fire. Obama noted that there are times in the course of history when the actions of ordinary
citizens spark movements for change because they have been longing for the right type of
equality and freedom. With this said Obama continues his speech by emphasizing the need for
other countries freedoms. So many times countries earn their freedom but their people do not.
How could anyone find justice in someone having no other options than a public suicide to catch
the world’s attention? This man had no other option to turn to, no court to hear his defense
against this situation. With all this said President Obama began to broaden his engagement based
upon mutual interests and mutual respect. In his own words, “I believe then and I believe now
that we have a stake not just in the stability of nations, but in the self determination of
individuals. The status quo is not sustainable. Societies held together by fear and repression may
offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear
asunder.” Spoken through true emotion and motivation this article conveys how sincere our
president is to do is job the right way, and the just way.
On the flip side there must be an article used for the second family member’s argument that
Barack Obama is the “worst president” ever. From the Wall Street Journal; Steve Forbes writes
that, “President Obama is repeating the biggest financial market mistake of former President
George W. Bush, which is adopting the mark- to- market fair value accounting for banks,
insurance companies and other financial institutions. He calls on President Obama to abandon
the mark to market fair value accounting as it does not work when there is a problem of liquidity
in the securities market. He also discusses how this accounting method compounded the financial
crisis. This article conveys that our president can flaw as well and succeed.
In this situation, nobody is right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to their own personal opinion
about whom they think is better or worse at something. A great place to base your opinion on
controversial issues like this is Ebsco Host. In evaluation to where this site can be found, its
rather simple. When looking browsing for information in the libraries section of Marshall’s
homepage students can find many options in their databases depending if you need biased or
unbiased information, the database system has it all. The site is very informative and there are
many different links and pages to choose from when looking for information.
VI.
As a group, we decided that the best way to accomplish this task was to assign each
individual their own step to complete. Blake completed steps 2, 4, part of 6 and 7. Jeana
completed steps 3 and part of step 6, and Hanna completed step 5. This process was the easiest
and most efficient way of completing the project in the time allowed. It also helped us learn from
each other in the various ways we went about finding and recording the research and summaries.
The question was, How to find out if Barack Obama was the best or worst president ever?
We also helped teach other about the types of sources you could use for a research paper.
Jeana taught us more about using CREDO Reference Database to find unbiased research on our
topic. Using CREDO Reference Database is one of the better databases to use when doing a
research paper because the information you find does not include someone else’s opinion about
the subject. All you have to do to find unbiased and credible information on your topic is type it
into the search after you open the CREDO website. You then look for the most relevant
information pertaining to your topic. After finding this information, you then check the
credibility of the source. You then complete your summary of all the information you have read.
Blake showed us how to find a book relevant to the topic at hand. He did this by showing
you could go to the library site on marshall.edu, or you could go to the library and ask a research
librarian for help. If you are to search online, you must make sure the book is a strong source of
information to your topic. You then must check to see if the book is credible and well
researched. If all these things check out, you then read the introduction and summarize the
information that you have read. You can do the same thing for a book in the library that you find.
You just have to go online and search for the author and sources stated in the bibliography.
Hanna taught us how to find scholarly and relevant journal articles to help us finish up
our research question. I covered the debate between if President Obama is the best or worst. My
two unbiased articles allowed the audience to form an opinion based on the information I
gathered from this research project.
We learned that first off you must check to see if the source is credible or not. You can
have internet sites that have an .org or .edu that are only bias opinions and false information. We
also learned how to check and see if a source is scholarly or not. The way it has changed the
way we view about academic research is that you have to put a lot of time and effort into making
sure your sources are legitimate. You must go through the process of verifying the source, the
author, and the publisher. You also have to make sure that it pertains to the topic. It cannot just
have some sort of name or topic close to yours. It has to be valuable and well informed
information to help strengthen and create a well-researched paper.
Works Cited
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"History in the Making: Barack Obama Wins Nomination." Ringtones - Unlimited Downloads,
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Kennedy, Edward M. The American Journey of Barack Obama. New York: Little Brown and,
2008. Print.
"Obama, Barack." Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009.
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"Obama, Barack." Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. Armonk:
M.E. Sharpe, 2010. Credo Reference. 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.
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"Obama, Barack Hussein (1961 - )." Topic Pages. Boston: Credo Reference Contributors, 2011.
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"Picture of an American Flag." Pictures / Stock Photos. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.photohome.com/photos/flag-pictures/american-flag-2.html>.
"President Barack Obama." The White House. Web. 19 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama>.
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"The next President of the United States - The Big Picture - Boston.com." Boston.com - Boston,
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