Research Log Entry 9

1. In the last class meeting, we talked about topic sentences and our search terms. We also tried to differentiate between popular, trade/professional and scholarly magazines.

2. A popular periodical usually contains news that would interest the common people. These target the largest audience and have plenty of ads, and they are rarely cited. A Trade/Professional is a periodical meant for a certain professional company or people (i.e. Jazz Musicians or Stockbrokers). A scholarly peiodical is meant for people researching a specific topic. These are always cited, usually with a bibliography at the end.

3. The advantage of an electronic periodical is that you can find more periodicals at a much faster rate. A disadvantage is that there may not always be full text versions of these periodicals. An advantage of a print periodicals is that it is easier to tell when it is current or not. A disadvantage is that it is harder to find an older version of a paper periodical.

Research Log Entry 8

1. Confucianism is a philosophy that has impacted the culture of China today.

2. Confucius, Kong Fuzi, Zhou Dynasty, Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, People's Republic of China, Neo-Confucianism

3. Academic Search Premier, Philosopher's Index

Research Log Entry 7

1. In the last session, the discussion was about using the different search tools and being persistent in finding precisely what your topic is.

2. The most important point that I learned in the last class meeting was the difference between multiple search tools to look for a topic. Something more recent may be better researched on a search tool specializing in newspaper articles. Older topics may be easier found with search tools involving encyclopedias.

3. Using different search terms that still relate to your topic may help you get out of a dead end, along with using different Boolean operation techniques such as using "or" instead of "and". Another way to avoid a dead end is to use other search tools. If the Enyclopedia Birtannica doesn't give satisfactory results, using Academic Search Preimer may help.

Research Log Entry 6

1. Why is Socrates' Crito still relevant in contemporary culture?

2. The search terms I used were "Crito" and "Socrates" and "cultural impact". The search terms did not work because the search engine did not recognize the word Crito, asking if I meant to spell other words.

3. When I removed "culutural impact" from the search terms, I got 9 results in the search.

4. I received 9 articles for my final results. I believe I had the right amount of results. I believe 5-10 results were sufficient enough to answer my question.

5. One particular result answered my question very well. It said that "in the end, after doing all we can to convince our compatriots of their moral and political obtuseness, we owe allegiance and gratitude to the culture that nurtured us as critics".

6. When I used "or" instead of "and" in between "Crito" and "Socrates", I received 687 results. The results in this search were much less helpful because I received much more results about Socrates rather than Crito.

Research Log Entry 5

1. Last sessions discussion covered the use of databases and the search strategies we could use to help us find specifically what we are researching about.

2. The most important part of the discussion was how to use EBSCOhost. I believe this research tool will help me find primary sources better than any popular search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

3. I can use these techniques when I am doing research for a paper in a history or science class where primary sources are necessary.

4. This search strategy will help me save a lot of time. The use of "and" and "or" in search engines will definitely help me get more specific search results at a much faster rate.

Research Log Entry 4

1. Why was Hurricane Katrina such a major disaster?

2.

• Was the aftermath of Katrina avoidable?
• Why did some people not evacuate the New Orleans area?
• Why was the government unable to respond quickly to aide the victims?
• Why were the levees so weak?
• Why was the mandatory evacuation called one day before the hurricane hit?

Final Question: Who was the most at fault for the disastrous aftermath of Katrina? President Bush, the federal government, or the local government?

3. I tried to be more specific everytime I came up with a new question.

4. I believe my final question is a bit more complex. I don't think I can go any further than that.

5. I could ask about how other natural disasters have been handled in the past 10 years. I could also ask about the history of FEMA, or questions about it's leader at the time, Michael Brown.

Research Log Entry 3

1. The things that were discussed in the previous class meeting were the bias of newspapers and being able to form new, more specific questions that relate to a broader question.

2. The most important point was being able to make new questions, because I do have a hard time coming up with new elements to put into research papers and essays.

3. I will try to ask more questions when I come across new facts.

4. I believe it is important to know about the authority of anything used in research, but it is especially true when researching on the internet.

5. I will try to make more specific questions about facts when I do the reasearch paper for history class.

Research Log Entry 2

1. The question I tried to answer was "What type of things are being proposed as an alternative to fossil fuels".

2. I used Google as my search engine.

3. The search term I used was "alternatives to fossil fuels"

4. I got 267,000 results with those search terms. The top two reusults were an about.com page about alternative fuels and the Wikipedia article on alternative fuel.

5. I could try and shorten my search terms (i.e. alternative fuels) to get more results out of the search engine I selected.

6. No other questions came to mind as I was researching this question.