HOW TO CONDUCT BACKGROUND RESEARCH?PRESENTATION BY: SAMI UL HAQ

M PHIL ENGLISH LITERATURE

IST SEMESTER

LAHORE LEADS UNIVERSITY

What is Research?

• It is systematic and scientific method of finding an answer to a question.

• It starts with a Question mark

Background research

• It is the foundation of your work

• It makes one more familiar with the topic

• BR is not what you already know-if it might be relevant

• It is really additional information what you lookup for your topic

Background research (Contd)

• It is the overview of some of important facts

• It helps in grasping your topic more

• It helps in understanding about the basic theory

Do not just start Googling but…

• Decide about Your entity• Variables• Wh Questions• Summarize question in

to one sentence• Analyze your question• Circle action words• Use Boolean

Expressions

Video

What is LR?

A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period.

A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis.

What is LR ? (Contd)

A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information.

It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations.

Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates.

And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant.

Literature Review (CONTD)

• LR (Ridley 2008,p2 )says

“It is the opportunity to engage in a written dialogue with researchers in your area,understanding and responding to the relevant body of knowkedge underpinning your research.”

Literature Review

• Sir Isaac Newton in his letters says about LR

“If I have seen further , it is by standing on the shoulder of giants”

Research types

• Primary research • It is first hand

research- it is done by the researcher himself/herself.

RESEARCH TYPES

• Secondary research

It is the evaluation , review and use of existing knowledge for the purpose of new research.

Primary Source

• Diaries and journals are considered as primary source

• Autobiographies• An autobiography is when you write a

story or book about yourself.• Example: Nelson Mandela wrote his

autobiography about events in his life called “Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. This is a primary document because he wrote his first hand experiences.

Primary Source

• Letters… John Keats • A letter to his brothers, George and Thomas

Keats, on 21 December 1817, Keats wrote.

“I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, upon various subjects; several things dove-tailed in my mind, and at once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason - Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half-knowledge.”

Primary Source•Letters… Virginia Woolf

wrote to her husband:

“I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel We can not go through another of these horrible times and I shan’t recover this time . I Hear voices and can not concentrate on my work. I have fought against it but can not fight any longer. I owe all my happiness in life to you…”

Primary Source

•Letters are considered primary documents. ▫Example: Soldiers during wars

wrote to their families about war events they experienced. Those letters are considered primary sources.

Secondary Source• Biography

▫Example: A biography is when you write about another person’s life. Alice Fleming wrote a biography on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. This is a secondary document. It was written about him after he died.

Primary or Secondary Sources?

• Newspaper and Magazine articles can be a primary or secondary sources. • If the article was written at the time

something happened, then it is a primary source.

• Example: The articles written on Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 are primary sources.

• However, if a reporter in 2009 wrote about George Washington’s inauguration using information written by someone else (1789), that would be a secondary source.

What is a Secondary Source?

• A secondary source is something written about a primary source.

• Secondary sources are written "after the fact" - that is, at a later date.

• You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information.

Secondary Source• Think about it like this….

• If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondary source.

• Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers, magazines, books or articles found that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research

Secondary Source

• Almanacs, encyclopedias, history books (textbooks), etc. are all secondary sources because they were written “after” the these events occurred.

USE OF INTERNET FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH USE OF INTERNET FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

Introduction

Evaluating Internet Resources

Google’s Services at a glance

E-Resources at a glance

USE OF INTERNET FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

• Internet and its most used component WWW has turned into a biggest source of information with widest coverage and the fastest access.

• It is the most powerful tool .

• It has revolutionized the way that people access information, and has opened up new possibilities in areas such as digital libraries, information ETC

• The World Wide Web can be a great place to accomplish research on many topics.

• It is the Hub of knowledge ,so scratch it.

Introduction

USE OF INTERNET FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

• Putting documents or pages on the web is easy, cheap or free, unregulated, and unmonitored. It is a self-publishing medium, that is, anyone can publish anything.

• Unlike most print sources, web sources do not have to be professionally accepted and edited to be published.

• Therein lies the rationale for evaluating carefully whatever one finds on the Web. The burden is on the reader to establish the validity, authorship, timeliness, and integrity of what he/she finds.

. Microsoft Encarta It has a vide range of information about all subjects.

. Encyclopedia Britannica.

. Wikipedia The free Encyclopedia.

Introduction

USE OF INTERNET FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH USE OF INTERNET FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

Google: Anatomy of a Search: How your search statement typed in the Google search box provides the results in fraction of seconds

Google: Searching Tips : Under are some of the useful terms which can refine your search results.

Google books :With Google Book Search, you can quickly search the full text of a book, www.books.google.com

Google Scholar : Google Scholar helps you search and find academic papers, abstracts and other scholarly sources .

Google Patent Search : Each Google Patent Search result represents an individual Patent .

E-Resources at a glance: E-Books

Useful Reference and research tools and Books

3.Bartleby.com http://www.bartleby.com

Provides the best works of fiction from a wide range of classic authors; general references etc.

4.The Online Book Page http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

The Online Book Page by University of Pennsylvania Library has about 25000 e-books on different subjects.

5.MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

It is a site for 500 course materials available on the Internet, for free download

E-Resources at a glance: E-Books

Journals published in electronic format, often available on the Internet. Directory of Open Access Journals http://www.doaj.org/

There are now 2514 journals in the directory. Currently 747 journals are searchable at article level. As of today 124159 articles are included in the DOAJ service.

NewJour : http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/

An archive for the Internet list for new journals and newsletters available on the Internet

FreeFullText.com http://www.freefulltext.com/

It provides direct links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow some or all of their online content to be viewed by ANYONE with Internet access for free

Openj-Gate.com http://www.openj-gate.com/

It is an electronic gateway to global journal literature in open access domain. Launched in 2006, Open J-Gate is the contribution of Informatics (India) Ltd to promote OAI. Open J-Gate provides seamless access to millions of journal articles available online.

E-Resources at a glance: E-Books

Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org/index.php

PLoS is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.

Bioline International: http://www.bioline.org.br/

It is a not-for-profit electronic publishing service committed to providing open access to quality research journals published in developing countries.

BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com/home/

It is a Publisher of more than 160 peer-reviewed open access journals.

Unesco Social And Human Sciences Documentation Centre: http://www.unesco.org/shs/shsdc/

Free access to specialized articles from around 700 periodicals in social and human sciences

Methods of organizing BR Note Card system

• Good record keeping .ie• Made your own e-library• Research cards and

assigning number• Bibliography card• Combine card

Prose and cons of note card system

• Shuffle the card and re organize –which makes writing the paper easier

• Cards may be misplaced or lost

• Punch it , ring it and then file it.

Plagiarism

• It is a serious crime• Study some one idea but

write your own and not of others.

Recapitulation• BR• How to Conduct?• Types• Use of Internet• Use of Libraries• Note taking• Organising and

presentration• MLA ,APA

Question and Answers

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