PLBC Presentation

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Basics of Research Strategy


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Many students see this as the essence of what research means


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Find data on a

topic and

make sense

of it. Put it all

together into

a grand

synthesis.


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The first step in most research

projects is to get a working

knowledge of your topic.

Whats a working knowledge?

Enough knowledge so that you

could speak about the topic for

one minute.

Where do you get that

knowledge? From a reference

source.


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What about Wikipedia?

See the discussion on page23 of the textbook:

Research Strategies: Finding

your Way through the

Information Fog (2008).


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Developing Research Questions around E.W. Kenyon

What influence did the metaphysical New Thought philosophy have

on his teachings?

This will likely need to be narrowed to one aspect of his teachings, e.g. his

view of the atonement.

Was Kenyon a Gnostic?

Was Kenyon correct biblically in saying that our faith can force God

to act?

What was Kenyons influence on the Word Faith movement of today?

Not a good question on two counts:

It is easily answered (Word Faith leaders see him as the father of their

movement)

It is a blunt point too broad. Kenyons influence was much too wide-

ranging to be covered in a single research project.


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1. What influence did metaphysical New Thought have on E.W. Kenyons doctrine

of the atonement?

I. Introduction (Influence of New Thought on Kenyon in general)

II. E.W. KenyonsD

octrine of the AtonementIII. Relevant Teachings in New Thought

IV. Influence of New Thought on Kenyons Doctrine of the Atonement

V. Conclusion

2. Who was the real Lucretia Borgia?

I. Introduction

II. The Lucretia of historical legend

III. Balancing view of Lucretia

IV. Conclusion

3. With regard to the time of the Exodus from Egypt, is the earlier or later date to

be preferred?

I. Introduction

II. Arguments in favour of the late date.

III. Arguments in favour of the early date.

IV. Conclusion


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When a library gets a

new book, the

cataloger creates a

catalog record, made

up of metadata

descriptive tags that

summarize the main

identifying details of

that book.

What you search for

in a library catalog is

detail within catalog

records like this one.

Each of

these is a

field or

identifiable

part of thedescription


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This is what you will see in the library catalog


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BOOLEAN SEARCHING WITH KEYWORDS

The OR Command Goal is to avoid multiple searches

Psychoanalysis OR Freud = either psychoanalysis or Freud

Colleges OR Universities

Adolescents OR teenagers

The AND Command Goal is to narrow down your search

Teenagers AND television AND violence all words must be present in one record

Internet AND securityForest AND ecology

The NOT Command Goal is to screen out irrelevant data records

(Internet AND security) NOT Spam Internet security but not data about spam

(Bible AND covenant) NOT Church Bible covenants but not Covenant Churcheswhere the Bible is taught

(Psychoanalysis OR Freud) NOT Jung

Phrase Searching

growing apple trees (growing apple trees)


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Ways of Searching for Information

Suppose that I wanted to find all the books on the meaning of life in

the library catalog.

I could do a title [any word] search with keywords I think would be

in a book on the meaning of life:

Wow. 200 results. Sadly, you will find that

most of them are not actually on the

meaning of life. The words are there in a

title or chapter title, but not the concept


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My book, The Hitchhikers Guide to

the Meaning of Everythingwill not bein the list.

Why? Because you searched on

meaning life and my book saysMeaning of Everything.

It would be nice to have another way

to search that would find everything ona topic, even if title words were

different from the terms Im using to

search with.


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There are three subjects:

Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Meaning (Philosophy) -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.

Life -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.


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How can I identify subject headings?

http://www.acts.twu.ca/Library/IdentifyingSubjectHeadings.swf


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Plagiarism, eh? : How to recognize it

and get it out of your life

Few people set out to be plagiarists. But for many

students, plagiarism happens.


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Why do we plagiarize?

Were pressed for time

It doesnt seem like a big deal

Other people write better than we do

Were not sure what plagiarism is all about, so we take achance

We believe most profs dont have the time to check on us We believe most profs dont have the Internet skills tofigure out what we did.


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So What Exactly Is Plagiarism?


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The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as follows:

The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea,

etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft.

(Oxford English Dictionary: http://dictionary.oed.com)


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Does this mean I cant quote from or refer

to anyone elses writing?

No, it doesnt mean that.

You can use other peoples writing if you follow

the right rules.


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When Quoting, you need quotation marks, areference, and an item in your bibliography

Information literacy is the natural extension of the concept ofliteracy in our information society. Information literacy is thecatalyst required to transform the information society of today into

the learning society of tomorrow. (Bruce, 2002)

BibliographyBruce, C. (2002). Information literacy as a catalyst for educational change: Abackground paper. White Paper Prepared for Unesco, the US National Commission onLibraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, foruse at the Information Literacy, Meetings of Experts, Prague, the Czech Republic, 1-17.Retrieved July 14, 2006 fromhttp://www.infolit.org/International_Conference/papers/bruce-fullpaper.pdf


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When referring to an authors work, you dontneed quotation marks, but you do need a

reference, and an item in your bibliography

Maughan (2001) demonstrates that the information literacy gap inhigher education is leaving university graduates devoid of the veryskills they require to function well within the information

workplace.

Bibliography

Maughan, P. D. (2001). Assessing information literacy among undergraduates: Adiscussion of the literature and the University of California-Berkeley assessmentexperience. College & Research Libraries, 62(1), 71-85.


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The heart of the problem of plagiarism is

MISREPRESENTATION

which breaks all the rules for using

other peoples work


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In Western Society, a persons words and ideas areconsidered to be the property of the person who

originates them.


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Stealing a persons words is similar to stealing

somebodys car and impressing your friends bypretending its yours.

Its theft, but more seriously, its misrepresentation.


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Any time I leave the impression

that the words or ideas Ive written are mine,when actually they came from someone else,

I am plagiarizing.


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Because passing off someone elses words or ideas

as your own is misrepresentation, it is viewed asacademic fraud as well as academic theft.


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The penalties are severe anything from a failed

research paper to a failed course to expulsion from theinstitution. Its that serious.


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So what are the boundaries?

How do I know when Ive become a plagiarist?


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Some boundaries are obvious:

If I copy material from a book or article, dont use

quotation marks and dont provide a citation to the source, I

am stealing someone elses words and pretending they are

mine.


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If I get someone else to write my paper or buy a paperfrom a commercial source or simply copy a whole paper off

the Internet, I am clearly plagiarizing.


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I plagiarize if I take something off the Internet? But isnt the

Internet free for all? People post things there so other

people can use them.

Ah, but youre confusing access and plagiarism. Even if

people give you permission to use their material, using it

without indicating the source makes it look like its yourmaterial. Thats plagiarism.


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Other boundaries are not so clear:

What if I use a chart or some other graphic off the Internet,

something that isnt really words? Is that plagiarism?


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Yes it is. It is still content, even if it isnt words. As such, itis the property of the one who created it, and passing it off

as yours is plagiarism.


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What if I take a paragraph of text and just change a fewwords to make it my own? Am I still a plagiarist?


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Probably you are.T

he problem here is a subtle one, solets try to understand it.

When you just change a few words, the structure of the

original is still there the form of the paragraph, the

arrangement of sentences, the ideas in their sequence. You

may change some of the words, but you are stealing the

structure.


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What if I dont use another authors words at all but I find anauthor that has a great idea that I dont see anywhere else.

Can I use it?


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Only if you create a citation to show that the idea is notyours but came from this other author. Otherwise you are

stealing an idea.


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Weve looked at some examples, but what ties them alltogether?

Its the idea of Intellectual Property. What comes out of my

mind and is communicated to others remains my property. If

you use my intellectual property as if it were your own, you

are plagiarizing.


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Its Starting to Look Like Everything is Plagiarism


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What can I legitimately use as an information sourcewithout having to make a citation for it?


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Your own ideas

Your own analysis/evaluation of other peoples ideas (once

you have provided citations for the ideas themselves)

Common knowledge knowledge that you find in several

sources that are not themselves depending on a single earlier

source.


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Tricky Situations and How to Get Out ofThem

1. You are planning to use some material from asource, but you would rather not quote from it. Is

paraphrasing OK?

c


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This depends on what you mean by paraphrasing.By its etymology para meaning with and phrase

meaning (well) phrase - a paraphrase is a phrase by

phrase rewriting of text into your own words (or

mostly your own words).

Plagiarism eh? How to recognize it


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Heres the trap. When you paraphrase, i.e. writeeach sentence of your source in your own words, you

always end up using too many of the authors original

words and you still steal the authors structure and

idea.



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Instead, interpret. Not:

Original: Matthew 13 deals with the parables of the

Kingdom and, as such, is primarily the teaching of

Jesus. It is the key to the whole book.

Paraphrase: The Kingdom parables ofMatthew 13

are mainly the teaching of Jesus, and are the focus of

the whole book.But interpretation: Harris (1999) argues that Jesus

Kingdom parables instruction in Matthew 13 is really

the heart of this gospel. (I have cited the author &

explained the idea.)



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How do you avoid the paraphrasing trap?

Simple. Dont paraphrase Interpret



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Tricky Situations and How to Get Out ofThem

2. The source you are reading says it much betterthan you could. Whats wrong with using the writerswords, if they help the reader of your paper tounderstand the situation better?



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Theres nothing wrong with using someone elses

words, as long as you quote them with quotation

marks and create a citation (note or reference) to the

source.



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Better still Quote a short portion (no more than 4 or

5 lines) and present the rest as yourowninterpretation:

Quotation, blah, blah. Brown goes on to argue that

the real answer to this problem isetc. (Brown 2004)



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To sum up

Its plagiarism if you use any text or ideas from anothersource in such a way that you leave the impression that

the material is yours.

Unless you know the information is common knowledge(found in several sources that do not depend on a

single original source), using it is plagiarism

When in doubt, provide a citation.



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One more thing:

You may have heard of people who plagiarized and

didnt get caught.

Do professors really check for plagiarism?



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Yes they do, and a surprisingly large percentage of

plagiarism is busted.

Plagiarism eh? : How to recognize it


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Do yourself a big favor:

Keep plagiarism out of your life.

Plagiarism eh? : How to recognize it


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William Badke, 2010

Associate Librarian, Trinity Western University, for Associated

Canadian Theological Schools and Information Literacy

7600 Glover Rd., Langley, BC, Canada V2Y 1Y1

Ph. (604) 888-7511, ext 3906

e-mail: [email protected]

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