Professional Research

Professional Research

1. PAGES 327 - 333 and 387 - 391

2. "Trove is the free National Library of Australia search service. "Trove contains over 100 million Australian and online resources.

3. Begin an effective research process by identifying and describing the issue, writing the thesis or purpose statement clearly, limiting the scope and determining the sources of information.

4. "Sound research requires skills in two areas: (1) skills in information seeking, which enable sources of information to be scanned efficiently using manual or online methods; and (2) critical appraisal skills, which enable analysis and evaluation to distinguish fact from opinion, make connections between theory and practice, and question and judge the validity and worth of evidence.

5. "Research is the process of finding, evaluating and processing information suited to a purpose.

6. The Research Process

   • Collecting information - "Successful researchers are able to collect, store and retrieve information from three broad sources of data: primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary sources of information are the people or organisations that take the action or cause the events that become part of society’s store of information. "Secondary sources of information are published and stored after the event has taken place. They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Tertiary sources of information are compiled from secondary sources. When searching for information it is useful initially to work from the general to the specific, or from tertiary and secondary sources to primary sources.
     • Primary sources - See page 329. "A primary source is a document, speech or other sort of evidence written, created or otherwise produced during the time under study. Primary sources offer an original view of a particular topic or event—for example, interviews, autobiographies, diaries, email, minutes, news film footage, official records, raw research data and speeches.
     • Secondary sources - See page 330. Secondary sources are summaries of information gathered from primary sources. They include handbooks, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, translations, reviews of research, abstracts, books and other publications.
     • Tertiary sources - Tertiary sources, such as textbooks, contain information from a variety of secondary sources. Tertiary sources consist of information that is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources—for example, almanacs (also considered secondary), indexes, abstracts, bibliographies used to locate primary and secondary sources and textbooks (also considered secondary).
   • See table page 328

7. "there are at least three disadvantages to paper-based sources of information: (1) traditional publica- tions and print media have to be held in a physical space such as a library, which can be accessed only during opening hours; (2) they take up a lot more space than electronic sources; and (3) conducting large-scale searches and cross-referencing is time-consuming.

8. "there are disadvantages to electronic media, including: (1) the material is intangible and not permanent unless it is printed out; (2) the computer technology must be available to access the information; and (3) the quality of the information is not always credible because the ease and almost instan- taneous uploading of new information may mean the quality imposed by effective editing and publishing services is often missing.

9. Social bookmarking

   • "Social bookmarking and tagging Social bookmarking allows any registered user to view web pages corresponding to a specific tag and to view the range of tags that a given page has received. Social bookmarking sites enable registered users to: create, store and share bookmarks on a public site add tags or keywords to identify, sort and organise bookmarks designate individual bookmarks as public or private.
   • "a potential disadvantage of social bookmarking is that it is done by amateurs rather than librarians or profes- sional researchers. Consequently, there may be inconsistent and poor use of tags, making it difficult to retrieve stored information.
   • "A folksonomy is a user- generated index of online materials. "The opportunity to add new tags means that the folksonomy’s index is flexible and can be extended in response to the views or interests of its ongoing users. The index is usually presented in non-linear form as a tag cloud. "Folksonomies are a strategy for groups of researchers, students or other communities of interest to work collaboratively to create and keep track of online resources on specific topics. Once the group negotiates criteria for inclusion of material in the folksonomy, group members can work together to create it. An advantage of a folksonomy-based tool for research is the opportunity to view the insights of other users and share topics of interest.
   • "CiteULike is a social bookmark manager that helps users to store, organise and share scholarly papers with others in their field of study. CiteULike allows you to click one button to automatically extract the citation details for a paper of interest on the Web and add the paper to your personal library.

10. "Really simple syndication (RSS) feeds distribute a blog, podcast or website’s new content as it becomes available. A subscriber to an RSS service such as GoogleReader, Bloglines or NetNewsWire is automatically notified when new posts or entries are added.

11. "Nine criteria for evaluating the credibility of source information are: (1) the source’s honesty and reliability; (2) the source’s lack of bias; (3) the purpose of the material; (4) the credibility of the author; (5) where the source obtained its information; (6) whether the material can be independently verified; (7) whether the material is current; (8) whether the material is complete; and (9) whether the source’s claims stand up to scrutiny.

    • "Criteria for evaluating Internet resources include the breadth and depth of scope, currency, authority and accuracy, graphic and multimedia design, purpose, audience, reviews, site workability, user-friendliness and connectivity.

12. " Propositions are claims on which an argument is based or from which a conclusion is drawn. As you read academic documents, you must apply critical thinking because you are required to evaluate and respond to the propositions and arguments presented in the documents.

13. Persuasion

    • "Persuasion is the process of convincing another person or party to change his or her beliefs or behaviour by employing appeals to both feelings and intellect. "Change brought about by persuasion rather than coercion is likely to continue. Change brought about by coercion leaves the receiver with no desirable alternative but to adopt the proposed change of attitude or behaviour.
    • "two different types of persuasive speeches—speeches of conviction and speeches of actuation—aim to influence listeners for different purposes. In a speech of conviction, the speaker attempts to convince listeners to believe as the speaker does. In a speech of actuation, the speaker aims to have listeners take the action proposed by buying a product or service, signing a petition, agreeing to a change or accepting a proposal.
    • "Persuasion often relies on the personal appeal of the writer or speaker (what Aristotle called ethos) and involves an appeal to an audience’s emotions (pathos).
      • Rhetorical Mix - "Persuasion involves careful framing of arguments and a mixture of the three types of rhetorical appeal identified by Aristotle. "The three-part model included the rhetorical mix of: 1) logos, or the appeal to logic (price, variety, product information) 2) pathos, or the appeal to the emotions (entertainment potential of the website, sensory appeal through audiovisuals, intuitiveness of navigation and the extent to which the website can be personalised for users) 3) ethos, or appeal to credibility.
      • "Features–benefits mix The features–benefits mix is a technique of persuasion that incorporates a mixture of a product or service’s features and benefits into the message to show the audience the real benefits. The message must stress the benefits in order to focus on the receiver’s need and enable the receiver to see the relevance of the features and benefits to them. The message has two essential components: features of a product or service, and a clear and concise illustration of how to apply these features; linkage of the features with the benefits to enable the receiver to understand ‘what’s in it for me.
      • "Appeals to emotion are ideas targeted towards the emotions, needs or values that the reader or listener is likely to care about. Fair appeals to emotion generate emotions based on facts and related to the issue. In contrast, unfair appeals to emotion generate emotions based on unsubstantiated claims and aroused by biased words rather than solid evidence or by fallacies such as red herrings or by personal attacks unrelated to the issue.
    • "Several factors contribute to a persuasive speaker’s or writer’s credibility, including education, profession, personality, physical appearance, standard of dress, respect for others, general awareness and knowledge of the problem or issue, and personal and social competence.

14. Primary data; Secondary data; Empirical data; Quantitative research; Qualitative research; Reliability; Validity; Hypothesis.