Chapter Six Summary: Locating and Using Information

Tara Forner and Justin Tufte

Objectives and Outcomes
- Identify and se electronic database resources relevant to your research
- Execute a specific, targeted electronic search using advanced search techniques
- Gather research data using several nonelectronic techniques
- Integrate research successfully into your text
- Avoid plagiarism

Quantitative data- describe measurable elements (quantities) in mathematical or statistical terms
Qualitative data- describe observed or reported information (qualities)

Consider searching electronic sources in the following order:
-Library’s online catalog
-Online reference materials
-General reference database
-Disciple-specific database
-Government databases
-The Internet and World Wide Web

Online Catalog
Online Catalog includes; books, bound periodicals, audiovisual holdings, electronic resources. Each book is in the Dewey decimal system and sorted into different categories and then subdivided with individual numbers. This helps you be able to find the correct volume out of the stacks.

Online Reference Materials
Most of the references and materials used by reference libraries are online. Two of the most used are handbooks and specialized encyclopedias. Handbooks used their information in tables, charts, diagrams, graphs, and glossaries. Specialized encyclopedias are used for an overview because they summarize and discuss facts and theories about your subject.

General Reference Database
After using the first two searches then you can do a topic search for published articles. These articles are from academic journals, periodicals, and newspapers. They generally just provide an overview of the topic.

Discipline-Specific Database
These searches give you the chance to search publications and reports that relate to your initial search. They come in print, CD’s or online format.



Government Documents and Offices
U.S. government is required to publish many of its documents, research findings, and proceedings. There are many Web sites that are updated regularly by the U.S. government, which makes information cheap and easily accessible.

Web Research
You can use general and discipline-specific searches, but some of the most reliable include; www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.excite.com, and www.metacrawler.com.

Searching Electronic Resources
More and more print information is being turned into online formats. This may make searching more easier or more harder. It makes you use more advanced search techniques to be more specific on your topic search.
Consider the following critical questions so that you get information that will be more useful:
-What are the key terms? What are synonyms for these terms? What alternative terms are used to refer to the topic?
-What indexing source does the database use?
-How do you want o combine the terms?

Keyword Searches
These are more flexible searches that usually include parts of the word, phrases, or some combination of both. You usually use these in the beginning of your search when you are just trying to filter out not related topics.

Subject Searches
These are predetermined categories that you can search within the database. On some databases you can limit your search. Such as;
-Time frame. Do you want information from the past ten years? Five years? Current year?
-Types of materials. Do you want only books? Articles? Articles in refereed publications? Audiovisual materials? Presentations?
-Language(s). Do you want materials only in English? Also in German? French? Russian? Spanish? Chinese?
-Print Format. Do you want only titles? The full citation? The complete record with the abstract if it’s available? The full text?

Searching Other Sources
Although the internet is a great resource, there are many other resources that can be of great use.
Here are some of those resources:

Internal Records
This is the data that businesses or organizations keep about their transactions. This information may include financial transactions, manufacturing and marketing records, or shipping records.

Corporate Libraries
Organizations such as law firms keep extensive libraries for their employees. These libraries may provide many services that can provide help in finding information for employees.

Personal Observations
Personal observations have long been a great tool for collecting data. This would include experiments done by experts and even your own hands-on experience.

Interviews and Letters of Inquiry
In an interview you need to gather necessary information about the subject, approach the person you want to interview and identify the categories of question you want to ask. There are two broad categories of question:
- Convergent questions: have one correct answer.
- Divergent question: are open ended and are more useful in problem solving.

Surveys and Polls
These are very effective opinion gathering strategies. Surveys can be designed using any of six different types of questions:
- Dual alternatives: yes or no questions.
- Multiple choice: questions: a list of answers with only one that is correct.
- Rank ordering: order items according to preference.
- Likert scales: rate items numerically or verbally.
- Completions: fill in the blank to complete an item.
- Essays or open-ended question: allows full expression of one’s opinion.


Using Sources Ethically
With all of the information on the Web, plagiarizing has become easier and more frequent. One must if their sources are credible and how to incorporate the information from these sources into their projects without plagiarizing.

Assessing Credibility
The ease of posting information on the Web has made it difficult to judge whether information online is credible. You need to know where the information came from and if there are any biases or incorrect information in the material. Here are some key items to pay attention to when judging the credibility of a Web document:
- Authorship: Can you identify the author or webmaster on the site? Is the author identified as a person, a corporation, a university? What do you know about the credential of the author or organization? Does the site have a sponsor that might have vested interest?
- Timeliness: When was the site originally posted? When was the site last updated? How regularly is the site updated? Is the information current or outdated for your needs?
- Purpose: Can you determine from the design and content if the site is intended to inform, persuade, or sell? Can you determine the intended audience? Does the site have advertising banners? Do they affect the content?
- Content: How detailed and well-researched is the content? Does the new information confirm or disconfirm your prior knowledge? Does the author fully cite sources and link to respected sources to support assertions? Can you verify the author’s claims using other resources? Does the content contain spelling and grammatical errors? Can you identify a particular slant or bias to the information?

Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is when you use a piece of work that is not your own without attribution. Here are some instances of plagiarism:
- Using exact quotations from a document, presentation, Web sites, or visual designs and images without attribution.
- Using someone else’s unique ideas without attribution.
- Using someone else’s unique processes without attribution.
- Using a piece of work that has only been changed slightly without attribution.

Individual and Collaborative Assignments
7 tips when working on an individual or collaborative assignment:
- Learn about your own academic library.
- Learn about a corporate library.
- Recommend resources.
- Identify keywords and subject headings.
- Compare sources in your field.
- Compare internet sources.
- Interview a professional.
- Identify and correct plagiarism.

Chapter 7 Summary

by Terry Fraser and Jed Stark

Planning and Drafting

Objectives and Outcomes

- Learn the strategies used by experienced writers as they explore, plan, and draft documents, oral presentations and visuals -
- As part of inventing and exploring, use a problem-solving process with proven strategies: brainstorming, 5 Ws plus H, cause-and-effect analysis, and synectics
- As part of planning, consider types of planning, use project-management tools, make decisions about rhetorical elements (content, purpose, task, audience, constraints, organization, and design), assess the logic.
- As part of drafting, select the appropriate person and verb mood, use plain language, avoid density, and use given-new constructions


Experienced writers typically ask whether their documents, oral presentations and visuals are accessible, comprehensible, and usable. In contrast, inexperienced writers tend to be concerned with whether they have enough content, minimize their planning, and not think much about the audience.

The following are steps professionals typically move through during the creative process:

-Inventing and Exploring

-Planning and Organizing

-Drafting and Designing

-Revising

-Editing

This chapter focuses on what happens in inventing/exploring, planning/organizing and drafting, and suggests a number of strategies to help you become more expert-like in these parts of the process. Revising and editing are the focus of the next chapter.

The writing process used to be described in three linear stages: pre-writing, drafting, and revising. Further research has shown that the steps are actually recursive, that is they can happen more than once, and more than one at a time.

It is a good idea to begin your writing process by asking questions. Questions about the context, the subject, the document, oral presentation, yourself and your role(as a writer, speaker or designer), reader or reviewer.Think about each of those possible questions and brainstorm some answers to them. For example: Why am I, the reader, reading this document? What is my previous knowledge on this topic? What do I need to know? What will influence my interpretation? Asking yourself these questions in advance helps you plan and organize your piece for your target audience. (See Fig. 7.5 p238 for an in depth list of questions)


Inventing and Exploring

Communicators spend a lot of time talking to themselves. Inventing ideas and listening to how they sound. You must run over your ideas, look up background references, make observations, do experiments and basically trouble shoot your entire idea until you believe it is at the best it can be.

Problem Solving Process

Effective problem solving can make your work much easier. individuals and groups in the workplace that want to be at their top production follow a problem-solving process. They initially:

1) Identify the context ( politics, policies, parameters for solutions) and the problem (which may be defined differently by different people)
2) They gather and evaluate information in order to set priorities.
3) They then typically formulate alternative possible solutions that may differ from conventional approaches, being careful to defer judgment about the preferred solution.
4) The individuals in the group then draw on their own knowledge and experiences with similar problems in order to determine the preferred outcome for success.
5) They later asses the alternatives and select on plan of action.
6) After finalizing the plan, they get started on the most appropriate, efficient solution, considering technical, organizational, and interpersonal factors.
7) As the solution is implemented, people need to monitor the individual and group performance against the outcome.

8) Now the group can finally evaluate their performance to determine the success of their problem solving process and the final product

Problem Solving Strategies
This chapter focuses on four different strategies for you to hopefully solve your problems.

- Brainstorming
- 5 Ws + H
- Cause-and-effect
-Synectics

We all should know what brainstorming is, the process of bouncing around a bunch of ideas without making a decision until at least a few ideas have been suggested. The 5Ws plus H is a common formula associated with journalism. Many of us i assume have run into this formula in many of or writing classes.

*Who- who is involved?

*What- What is involved? What should be Changed?

*When- When should it be done? when is the most appropriate or convenient time?

*Where- Where should it be done?

*Why- Why should it be done?

*How- How should it be done?

Another effective strategy that is common in quality control circle is the Cause-and-effect analysis, which focuses on the root cause of a certain problem. for a business causes of specific problems can be seperated into four categories, Machine, Employee, Material, and Method. There is a good chart on page 232 to give you an idea what this method involves.

The last problem solving strategy is Synectics. this is coined from the greek word syn, meaning "to bring together," and ectos, for "diversity." Together it suggests that this word means bringing together a diversified opinions or ideas. This encourages workplace professionals to combine unrelated ideas as a way of working with a certain problem. Doing this helps develop new perspectives and solutions. Using a variety of methods, such as metaphors, analogies, role playing, and simulations, the trouble-shooters first define the problem then they put themselves into it and using one of these methods act out the problem and see what they can do about it.



Planning and Organizing

There are three types of planning that experienced writers use prior to beginning drafting:

1. Schema-driven planning
2. Knowledge-driven planning
3. Constructive planning

Schema-driven planning is when you create a document according to an existing format or template. A schema is your knowledge, your mental image of what is expected for the given situation. If you were to write a memo, you know what it would look like, or a cake recipe, or a business letter. There is a certain format to each that is different from the others. Knowing these formats allows you to write what you need with less work on what it should look like, and what kind of information to include.

Knowledge-driven planning is when you have a great deal of knowledge about the topic your are writing about. For knowledge-driven planning to work, your information must be very well organized and to the point. Much like giving an informational speech on something you have a lot of knowledge about, it is easy to wander and follow tangents. Stay on task.

Constructive planning would be used if you have a very difficult writing task. You must use careful analysis of the purpose, audience, task and other constraints to successfully use constructive planning. It will however help to keep you organized, on task, and creating and meeting deadlines. Often, a combination of two or even all three types of planning are used.

Project Planning

Two types of charts can be used to help with time- and project-management: Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) charts and Gantt charts. PERT charts allow you track activities and show how they depend on each other, while Gantt charts use time lines to track activities. Both tools are easy to use with computer software, and can be used to keep all of the team members up to date with project deadlines and percentage complete.
A very important part of planning revolves around the ethics of the situation. No matter how accurate your information, or impressive your design, or how eloquently you speak, if you are perceived as unethical your audience won't think twice about what you have to say. You must find a balance between your personal beliefs and your public positions on your topic(s).

Assessing the Logic

You must make sure that your document is logical. Problems with logic generally fall into four categories:
1. Using data from authorities
2. Presenting facts without drawing inferences
3. Drawing inferences
4. Establishing causal relationships

Using data from authorities usually gets good response from audience members, but only if that authority is well grounded in the topic. Make sure you research the authorities you use, and try to use non-partial ones.
Having facts are great but if you don't show how they logically connect with your topic, they will only serve to confuse the audience.
During your planning, you obtain data and then draw inferences based on that data. Making hasty generalizations could lead to inaccurate inferences. Make sure there are multiple sources giving you the same conclusion, or you may have just happened to pick the only one with that conclusion when in fact the majority go the other way.
Lastly, when using cause and effect, be sure that the effect has sufficient cause. Some causes may be a sufficient cause(only one cause for the effect) or they may also be a contributing cause(cannot stand by itself, but helps other causes to bring about the effect).

Drafting
Drafting is writing of the text and prepping the visuals. There are many different approaches to this stage of the process, each different for writers, or speakers, and designers.

- You may want to create small pieces of the draft during the planning stage, write small notes of key points you don't want to forget and when your planning seems to be done you take these notes, develop them, and fill in the remaining spaces.

- You may sit down and compose or design from beginning to end without interruption.

- You may want to draw up an outline and notes or a rough sketch, using this a guide for when you write or draw, going back to them whenever you find a snag.

- you may generate an online outline or sketch as the framework of your document and then stick to this outline.

- You may want to take your time, work slowly as you ponder and polish your work as you go along and figure it out as you go.

- Or you may take the opposite approach and work very rapidly letting the ideas tumble out onto each other.

The best approach is to try several of these strategies in order to see which one works best for you. Also you need to look at drafting as a continual process, something that you are always doing as you go through your work, you draft as you think of new ideas, it is seldom a "do it once" part of the process.

Selecting Person

Choosing among first, second, or third person relies on the purpose and audience of your presentation or document. First person (I, We) is appropriate when you are narrating events in a sequence where you play a significant role. Second person (You) is normally reserved for instructions where readers are being directed to complete particular actions. Third person (He, She, One, It, They) is the most common, enabling you to emphasize the sequence of action rather than yourself or the readers.

Verb Mood

mood refers to the characteristics of various verbs which show a presenters attitude towards their statement. During your drafting, you should select verbs that convey the mood that is appropriate to the situation

- Indicative mood states facts or opinions or asks questions.

fact nurses us a rectal thermometer to take a baby's temperature

Opinion Child-care providers prefer a thermometer strip rather than a rectal thermometer for taking a baby's temperature.

question Why should child-care providers use a thermometer strip to take a baby's temperature?

-Imperative mood expresses commands or gives a direction.

command (you) Use a rectal thermometer to take a baby's temperature.

direction (you) Get a thermometer from the drawer labeled "Thermometers" in utility room II

- Subjective mood expresses recommendations, wishes, conjectures, indirect requests, and statements of conditions contrary to fact.

recommendation When children are hospitalized, we recommend that parents be wit them. (not are)

Wish I wish the clinic were able to provide more well-baby classes. (not was)

Conjecture If the budget were not cut, we would have electronic thermometers. (not was)

indirect request if the rectal thermometer were to break, a baby could be seriously injured. (not was)

condition The parent asked if the examination were almost over. (not was)

contrary to fact

Process explanations deal with observable, verifiable information which is why is written in indicative mood. however you also need to be able to recognize and use imperative mood and subjective mood in appropriate contexts.

Selecting Active or Passive Voice

Your selection of either active or passive voice depends on your subject, the purpose and focus, as well as your audience. Active voice focuses on the doer of the action and de-emphasizes the receiver, which is appropriate in most situations. Active voice is used more commonly because it is much more interesting to read, more direct, pretty much you would use in every situation unless you have a specific reason not to. Passive voice is usually used when the receiver is more important than the agent. To better understand this concept use the figure on page 248.

Using Plain Language

Plain language makes understanding even the most technical document much easier. You should strive to use plain language whenever possible. Here are some characteristics of plain language:

-Common, everyday words, except for necessary technical terms.
-"You" and other pronouns
-The active voice
-Short sentences
(as described by the presidential order stating all government documents must be in plain language)
Using plain language will increase the comprehensibility and usability of your documents, oral presentations, and visuals.

Avoiding Density

Sometimes you may have one paragraph on a single topic, but there are so many ideas pack into it that it is difficult to see the connection between them. This is an example of a 'dense' paragraph. Here are some suggestions for avoiding density:

-Separate information into several sentences rather than a few very long sentences.
-Develop important points in separate paragraphs.
-Add examples and explanations to illustrate points.
-Use direct diction.
-Add transitions within paragraphs and between paragraphs and sections of a document.
Concerning visual aids:
-Use headings and subheadings to identify key sections.
-Illustrate objects and concepts to aid understanding.
-Use selected visual devices to highlight key ideas: lists, bullets, tables, underlining, italics, boldface.

Using Given-New Analysis

Given-new constructions are when new information is connected to what the audience already knows, either from background knowledge or from immediately preceding text. It is very important to make sure your ideas logically follow one another. It is easy to assume your readers(listeners) know more than they do, so you neglect to include background or connecting information that the readers(listeners) need. Refer to page 253 for some nice examples of given-new analysis.
Documents written with this analysis are typically easier to understand and remember.