English 2 Wagner

From the Cabrillo College Library homepage <http://libwww.cabrillo.edu>
Click on Internet Links (second icon down on left)
Then on English
Under English, click to bring up English 2, Composition & Critical Thinking, E.Wagner (there are lots of English Web exercises; be sure to get the right one).

Rules of the road for today:

1. You can write on this sheet, or open a Word document and take notes that way. If you do that, save occasionally.

2. Other printing: Mostly while you are researching today, you can email yourself things you want to keep track of. But, also, while you are in the classroom today, you can print without charge. Just keep it to 20/25 pages per student.

Data -> Information -> Knowledge

Knowledge is information that we have thought about and understand. Knowledge is assembled from information resources. In connecting, analyzing, interpreting, and finding patterns within pieces of information, knowledge builds understanding. For the individual person, knowledge involves both understanding, and the ability to make use of data and information to answer questions, solve problems, and make decisions.

Propaganda

We always hope that information is accurate. But information can be collected within conceptual frameworks that influence or change its meaning.

Propaganda: The systematic propagation of information or ideas by an interested party, especially in a tendentious way in order to encourage or instill a particular attitude or response. -- Oxford English Dictionary 2d ed.

With so many information resources available in today's world, excellent resources reside alongside the most odious. It is helpful to be aware of the source of information you use. Some approaches:

If you're selecting periodical articles: Know the distinction between magazines and journals. Magazines are written for broad audiences; they are popular. Journals are written for academic audiences. Articles in journals are peer-reviewed -- authors submit articles to an editor, who then sends it to academic peers who decide whether the paper is good enough to get published. Most periodical databases offer ways of limiting to peer-reviewed articles. To illustrate: Library homepage -> Full Text Articles -> Academic Search Premier. Topic: glaciers melting
If there's an organization involved: Research the organization -- Use a large periodicals database, like Academic Search Premier, or a newspaper database like Proquest Newspapers.

Or for a political organization, go to SourceWatch.

For example, an organization called the Heartland Institute sponsored a conference on Global Warming in New York City early in March 2008. Suppose you read this in a New York Times article about it:

A centerpiece of the meeting was a short report by 24 authors called "nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. Its main conclusion was this: "Our findings, if sustained, point to natural causes and a moderate warming trend with beneficial effects for humanity and wildlife."

You can then go to SourceWatch to see who funds, in part, the Heartland Institute.

Out on the Web: Find out who bought the domain name -- Suppose I found something posted about glaciers melting posted at livescience.com. I can go to NetworkSolutions WHOIS database and find out who bought that domain name. Doing that, I learn that it is owned by Imaginova Corp. I research Imaginova Corp. and find out that it was founded in 1999 by CNN business show host Lou Dobbs. That may not tell me a whole lot -- except I go to Biography Resource Center (one of our full text databases) and find out that Lou Dobbs is identified as a "conservative Republican." I'm still just inferring a relationship.
You can check the National Environmental Directory. You can also check for information about various nonprofits at places like Charity Navigator and GuideStar.org and Give.org

Misinformation

Misinformation is information that is wrong or mistaken. Remedy: fact check!

Out on the Internet, especially in emails, misguided people sometimes pass along misinformation that is really urban legend. You can check out Internet Hoaxes at a Department of Homeland Security Web site || Snopes.com unravels urban legends.

Disinformation

Disinformation is misinformation with an attitude. Disinformation is false, mistaken, and/or misleading information that is distributed to intentionally mislead.

The Internet makes it very easy to disseminate propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation. The Hate Directory lists lots of Web sites, blogs, mailing lists and so forth. Then there are Web sites that are "just for fun." For example a Web site for the country of Molossia. Whitehouse.net is a spoof.

Information from volunteers

Wikipedia articles are written by volunteers. Some people think that Wikipedia is too liberal (!!), and these folks have founded Conservapedia (aimed at high school students and homeschoolers). Then there is RationalWiki.com (which keeps an eye on Conservapedia). And many other incarnations.

Hoping to mend all this is Citizendium.com -- where article authors are named, and there are editors.

Evaluation is very important!

Now to doing some research! Find books.

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Library Catalog

What did you find? _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

The library now has about 15,000 electronic books (soon to be 18,000). The amazing thing is that you can search inside those books. To get to the electronic books:

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Full Text Articles (second icon down on left)
3. Click to select NetLibrary E-Books

What did you find? _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Use periodicals databases

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Full Text Articles (second icon down on left)
3. Click to select Academic Search Premier
4. Click to go to .
5. Click to limit your search to full text articles:

You can also limit your search to

Sometimes you can limit your search so much that you get zero results. The best approach is to be a bit playful -- try this, try that.

You can email these articles to yourself.

What did you find? _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Local newspapers

For local newspapers

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Internet Links (third icon down on left)
3. Click on News & Newspapers. Local newspapers are listed first.

Use CQ Researcher || Proquest Newspapers || Ethnic Newswatch

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Full Text Articles (second icon down on left)
3. Explore using CQ Researcher, Proquest Newspapers, and Ethnic Newswatch for your topic.

What did you find? _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

If you have a Santa Cruz Public Library card, try using their Opposing Viewpoints database for your topic.

Using Google to search the Web

Google now does what it calls a universal search -- it searches a variety of its databases and returns results alerting you when there is interesting stuff in more than one.

Here Google is telling me that not only are there Web sites that might interest me, but there is also information in books.

Here, Google is telling me there are also videos -- glacier surfing video

Google Scholar is a database for periodical articles. Its URL is scholar.google.com.

Try some Google searches.

What did you find? _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Tired of using Google? Try Ask.com and Exalead.com. Both of them suggest ways you can narrow and expand your topic. And Bill Gates, not to be outdone, has a search engine called Windows Live or Live Search: http://www.live.com

Citing your sources

To get to citation style guides: From the Library homepage, click on Internet Links and then Style Guides.

Or, try Worldcat.org -- you search, and then click Cite this Item. Amazing!!

Transferring an Image from the Web to a Word Document

The Web is rich in images. You'll want to feel comfortable in bringing an image from the Web into a Word document. So if you don't know how to do that in your sleep, go through these steps:

Go to one of the following sites and select an image.

To insert an image into a Word document:

Bring up Word if you don't already have it started START -> Programs -> Word
Go back to your image. Right click on it. Scroll down to Copy
Go to your Word document. Position your cursor to where you want your image to be. Paste the picture (File -> Paste; or, use Ctl V)

If you copy and include the image in something you write, the origin of the image should be acknowledged. At the minimum, give the title of the Web site and the complete URL (you can just copy and paste the URL into your Word document -- highlight the URL, then Ctrl C to copy and Ctrl V to paste).

If you finish a little early, all of the computers in the classroom have Google Earth. Go to START -> Programs -> Google Earth. Wow!

To get to this page on the Internet

Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage http://libwww.cabrillo.edu
Click on Internet Links (third icon down, on left)
Click on English
Under Course-Related Materials (towards the bottom), click on ENGL 2, Composition and Critical Thinking, E. Wagner

E. Wagner, T. N. Smalley last rev. 4/08