Chapter 10
•Research Plan
•Using the Library
•Using What You’ve Found
• Organize your thoughts to assess what you
already know.
• Support information by using specific
research.
• Specific research provides sources to
quote-people who know more about a
given topic than you.
• How much do you know about the
topic before you begin?
• Find an expert on your topic and
interview them
•Government officials
•Organizations
•University Departments
• Remember to adapt to the audience that
will hear your presentation.
• A class speech may require less formality
than a commencement address before
members of the community.
• The audience may not have the same
interests as you.
What are the needs and expectations of
those people who will be listening to your
speech?
• What do the listeners already know about
my topic?
• How do I capture their interests?
• How formal should my language be?
• What should I avoid saying that might
alienate some audience members?
• What can I say to change the minds of
people who might disagree with my
position?
• Make it clear that you care about your audience and
that you want to share the information in your speech
with them.
NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, a public
speaker for raising awareness about autism,
received an honorary Doctor of Human
Letters when he addressed Cazenovia
College’s 1999 graduates.
• Using the library is crucial step in
preparing a piece of writing .
• You need to supplement your personal
knowledge with solid research.
• Don’t be intimidated by the library.
• Take advantage of the reference librarian’s
knowledge.
• They are trained to answer your questions and
give you guidance in your research efforts.
• They are aware of places to look to help you
find the information you are looking for.
•They actually like helping you.
• They will often help you over the phone- great
time-saver
• The librarians working in these departments will
find facts for you-for free.
• The Supreme Court’s most recent ruling on capital
punishment
• How to get financial aid for college
If you plan ahead, this is an awesome resource!
• Interlibrary Loan: a cooperative
system by which libraries lend
specific books to one another on
order for the cost of postage and an
insurance fee.
• If your library does not have the book
you need, this is a good resource.
• Database: a collection of related information
• Online databases provide rapid access to many computer databases
containing information on many topics.
• The Internet is littered with false information that people purposely post.
• Do not use Wikipedia.com as a source…EVER!
• 1. The Authority of the author/publisher of
information.
• You should be able to identify the author of the work/site,
his/her credentials, relevant affiliations, and past writings.
The article itself should offer information, or sources like
Who’s Who, the author’s home page, or Google search the
publishers/author’s name to see what other works support
their credentials.
•What is the motive for your source’s article,
blog, website? Does your source admit to a
particular bias? Offer historical, medical or
industry facts and not opinions, or affiliation
viewpoints? Can you compare the information
to other independent sites/articles to verify
facts?
• Do the facts agree with your own knowledge of the
subject? Can you insure information is complete and
accurate by comparing with other specialists in the
field? Does this author list other sources for his/her
information, as well? And, believe it or not, check the
site, article or blog for grammatical and spelling
errors, typos. These usually indicate a nonprofessional delivery of information, making the
facts suspect.
• When was the information published? Check the
date on the web page for publication date and
revision dates. Is the information current? Does it
update old facts? Substantiate other materials
you’ve read?
• Are these facts popular vs. scholarly? (Huffington
Post vs. Wall Street Journal)Does the information use
raw data, photographs, first-hand accounts, reviews
or research reports? Has the information been
analyzed and the resources cited? Are footnotes,
endnotes or bibliographies listed?
• http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2011/08/internetresearch-not-always-deep.html#.UWLkSNbCbTo
• My Virtual Reference Desk
• www.refdesk.com
• This site links to dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference/research materials
• www.libraryspot.com
• This site links to over 300 libraries, including the Library of Congress.
• www.Ask.com
• Jeeves will take you to an Internet site that answers your question.
• Books:
• Table of Contents
• Outlines the general plan of the work. My include
the page number where a chapter begins, a
summary of the content of each chapter, and a
breakdown of each chapter into its major sections.
• Periodicals:
• Newsbank Electronic Index
• Accesses more than 2 million newspaper articles!
• Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature
• They are arranged my subject and author
• This is great for journals and magazines.
• More than 300 popular magazines
• Don’t forget Encyclopedias
• You also can use interviews as sources
• Take Notes:
• Record more notes than you think you’ll need.
• Organize so that you can easily incorporate them
into your speech or paper.
• Use 3X5 notecards
• Heading
• Source citations at the bottom
• Use quotation marks
• Plagiarism is copying or imitating the language, ideas, or thoughts of
another and passing them off as your original work.
• Some websites offer to write it for you. Don’t copy and paste
information into your speech or paper!
• You do not need to quote a source of you are reciting a fact that is
available from many sources
• Example: George Washington had wooden dentures.
• If you are not sure, quote!
• “When in doubt, tell the truth.”
• Mark Twain