We welcomed Mrs. Ludwig-LaSota’s Living Environment classes to the library this week as they found and evaluated information for a class presentation on genetic diseases and disorders.

After defining the task, we decided that someone in the medical community would be the ideal source for this health-related project, so we set out to find information that we knew was written or reviewed by medical professionals, or at least was sponsored by medical organizations.

Since we are looking for 3 reliable sources for our brief presentations, we decided Wikipedia wasn’t the best source because of the uncertainty of the original authors, as well as the extensive medical terms that are used in the rather long articles. Wikipedia itself told us it may not be appropriate to cite a tertiary source as the sole source for information (see “How To Cite“). We did decide, however, that the list of related websites might be useful, as well as some of the images.

We decided that since many of the overview articles at WebMD were written and reviewed by medical professionals, and couldn’t be changed by just anyone, that site might lead us to reliable sources.

We also considered the search process itself, and briefly discussed how Google and other search engines rank their search results; not by how reliable or “good” the information is, but by how many other web sites link to it — essentially, a popularity contest.

SweetSearch was introduced as a search engine that does give an indication of how reliable the search results may be, since “every web site in SweetSearch has been evaluated by [their] research experts” — sweet!

Since this project requires a bibliography of at least three reliable sources, we went over how to cite information from the web, using a page from the Academy Research Manual on how to include a work cited only on the web. This is covered on page 4 of the Academy Style Guide (which is based on MLA 7).

Good luck on your presentations!

I enjoyed working with students in Mr. Pedzich’s English 101 classes this week. Here’s a recap of what we went over…

Exploring Topics — this is the broad area that you are interested in exploring. If you have a topic, great! If you are still looking for ideas, check the Index from Issues and Controversies for hundreds of viable topics.

Developing a Thesis Question — once you’ve decided on a topic, do some preliminary research on your topic. Check the library catalog, check the databases, check the open web with carefully selected keywords to help you with background knowledge. From there, you’ll need to develop a thesis question. Remember, a good thesis question:

• is open-ended
• cannot be answered with a simple yes or no answer
• cannot be answered by simply restating facts
• will lead your research

My colleague Joyce Valenza, the school library media specialist at Springfield Township High School, has develop this overview of the thesis.

Next, you’ll need to find some sources — that is, people who have an opinion about your topic (specifically related to your thesis question) that can help you view your thesis from different perspectives.

Some of the resources we used in class:

• The Opposing Viewpoints series, available in the Academy Library (search for “Opposing Viewpoints” in the Academy Library Catalog)
• The Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center online — available from the Academy Library Database page
• Issues and Controversies online — also available from the Academy Library Database page

Using Bibliographies — remember, you can use the list of sources that your resources have provided to find additional information online. Use “phrasing” when using search engines to help narrow your searches to specific article titles that may be available online.

Electronic bibliography generators — such as BibMe and Citation Machine. These are useful tools when used correctly; remember that it’s a machine creating these citations, not an intelligent person like yourself, so be sure to check the results against a reliable research manual, such as the Academy Research Manual. If it looks wrong — it probably is!

After exhaustive research, and reading and collecting the opinions and perspectives of many sources, you’ll need to develop an answer to your thesis question — this will be your thesis statement, which is the controlling idea of your entire paper. See the OWL at Purdue resource for more information on Creating A Thesis Statement.

The Dartmouth Writing Program also has some helpful guidance on Developing Your Thesis.

Feel free to contact me if you need any help, or if you would just like some ideas on where to look next. You can respond to this post, you can send me an e-mail at batemane@canandaiguaschools.org, or you can just stop by the library when you have a free period.