LENG 102 Academic Reading and Writing I

Lecture 2b: Researching

for Relevant Information
 Where to Begin? At the Beginning!
cannabis / weed / hemp

Let’s say you need some research resources for a paper

you’re writing for a class. You have a general topic –
marijuana – and you know you need resources, but you
aren’t sure how to get started.

Your impulse would be to start with the Internet, but

instead, first consider what you need to find:

quality, credible resources

about or related to marijuana
 Narrowing What You Need
● “Marijuana” is a very, very broad topic, and
trying to research a very, very broad topic is
very, very difficult.
● You need to narrow the topic down to
something more specific – you can narrow the
topic by asking yourself questions about the
topic, such as…
•
painkillers
•
anti anxiety medication
-

•
penado I
 Need to Narrow? Ask These…
● What do I find _____________
interesting about the
topic? medications of
e. g. cannabis ?

● What might I find ___________

useful to learn?
● What ___________
personal ________________
experiences have
I had that relate to some aspect of the topic?
● What _______________
misconceptions do people have about bad as cigarette to
not as

the topic that I’d like to clarify?

- It is
our health
-
Makes you happier & more energetic

● What ______________
myths exist about the topic
that I’d like to dispel? What would i like to learn more
about with regard to this topic?
 Asking the questions leads to…
• The _____________
narrowing and _____________
focusing of
the topic main of passage
idea * only 0¥
/ essay Sentence

• The creation of a ______________,

thesis statement which topic
sentence is

becomes the _____________

backbone of your paper of main
a
idea

paragraph .

• From the thesis statement, you can generate

_______________
Keywords

• ____________
keywords are the most important parts of
your thesis statement and are what you use to
conduct searches when looking for resources
statement
i. conduct thesis first .
 Thesis statement

Marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes.

G Medical marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes.
f
Medical marijuana should be legalized for the treatment of seizures, glaucoma,
and nausea as a result of chemotherapy.

• marijuana • law meIEie

• legalized • treatment
• medicinal • seizures t¥iEk¥¥
✓
• purposes • migraines/headaches
• cannabis • glaucoma F YuEE
• legalization • “pain relief” _¥¥ at

• medicine plan of development• chemotherapy treat patients

cancer

• medical • “case study” (or studies)

|2ndPara;seizute=|
para
ist : intra

• “medical marijuana” para

3rd
- :
• doctors
glaucoma
nausea
4th para
:
•
synonym
-
 More on Keywords
• Keyword searching is how you’re going to be
conducting most of your searching. Keyword
searching is the combination of key words with
operators (AND, OR, and NOT) to produce
search strings
• Remember, keywords will come from your thesis
statement, but you ought to include related words
and concepts as well “Medical marijuana”
D
• When using phrases – like medical marijuana –
you need to put the phrase in quotation marks:
 “medical marijuana”

Search string: examples

more accurate
● Search for a specific site
➢ Put “___________"
site in front of a site or
domain. For example, _________________.
site youtube.com/site:goV
:

● See Google’s cached version of a site

➢ Put “__________"
cache :
in front of the site address.
● Search for a specific file type
➢ Put “____________"
ext:
in front of the file type
to be found. For example, _________
ppt
ext :
or
_________
ext mp3
:
 So…what are scholarly resources?

● Written by ______________
experts

● Focus on a particular __________,

field

__________,
topic or _________________
discipline

● Intended for others in that field or career

● “Proper” language, ______________
technical

vocabulary *
journalsare scholarly
● No ads
● ______________
RESEARCH _______________
ORIENTED
 * Journals are scholarly
POPULAR resources are the opposite
* not alarmed -6 use

• Written by ______________
journalists
• Usually cover ____________
broad _____________,
topics
fields, issues, or disciplines
• Usually appeal to a wide audience
• Everyday language, slang, even profanity
• LOTS of ads
• NOT ____________
RESEARCH ________________
ORIENTED

try not to use newspapers / magazines

* Magazines and newspapers are popular

 Locating Items in the Library
• Most libraries use a classification and call
number system to organise books and other
items found in the library. The call number is
unique, like an address, it tells us where the
book/item is located in the library.
e. 9 '

general
ooo

technology
600

• Which classification system does CIHE library

use?
➢ ___________
Dewey Decimal ____________
System
______________
 Dewey Decimal Classification
System
• The Dewey decimal system is used in more
than 200,000 libraries throughout the world. In
the Dewey decimal system, all knowledge is
divided into ten main classes, which are listed
below:
 Searching a Book Belonged to a
Specific Category
• Butterfly