Original Research

I was asked to write about original research and if I have ever done original research before. When I was in high school we were supposed to do a research about something that we would like to add, take away or change about our school. My group and I came up with a survey to ask students and faculty about cell phones in our school. My group wanted to pass a "bill" to allow us to use cell phones during lunch and passing time. Our survey conducted of questions such as how often do you use your phone, what do you use it for, why should we have cell phones in school, why shouldn't we have cell phones in school, etc. The faculty thought that we shouldn't have cell phones because it was going to distract students from learning. The students obviously thought that we should. We weren't able to get it passed my senior year but 2 years later it was. Original research is different because it isn't someone else's work or thoughts. It is your own thoughts and ideas. I think that library research guides you to original research because you can get some ideas of what to do from library research but make it your own. A pro for library research is that it is factual and you can trust it. A con for library research is that you have to trust that it is factual because it wasn't your work. A critical thinking skill that involves both types of research is evaluation. The most important critical thinking skill in my opinion for library research is interpretation. You have to interpret the information that is given to you. I think that evaluation is the most important for original research because you have to evaluate what you came up with and trust that it can be believed.

Statistical Information

In the government document that I found it did indicate how the data was collected. They did a survey that the NIDA funded. They surveyed adolescents in middle and high schools across the United States. In the scholarly journal that I found it didnt indicate how the data was collected or analyzed. I think this is because a government document is more important than a scholarly journal and maybe a government document is required to let these things be known.

Government document: Volkow , N. (2006). National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Scholarly journal: Steroids, Tommy John, and Cataracts. (2011). Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, 19(2), 141-143.

Intellectual Property

I was asked to give my own definition of intellectual property but I am not sure what this even means. If I had to take a guess on what intellectual property was I would say that it has to do with someones personal thoughts or creative words. According to dictionary.com intellectual property means, property that results from original creative thought, as patents, copyright material, and trademarks. Some examples of intellectual property from academic or everyday life are an authors novel, possibly a professors lecture because it is their own thoughts and it cant be copied, also a music artist lyrics or songs. I was asked to answer the question on how does the concept of intellectual property change when it can be manipulated and shared and I think that it can never be manipulated because it would be plagiarism. You cant take someones own thoughts and change them into your own. You can although take what they are talking about and make your own intellectual property from that.

Checking In

I was successful in finding a mainstream article. It was very easy to find one that was related to my topic. The one thing that is challenging is finding an international and an alternative press article. The two websites that I went to I couldnt find anything. I am still trying to figure out how to use the Lexis and ProQuest websites. Other than that my research is going good and I am continuing writing my paper. I am also doing very well with my semester research project. Everything that we have learned in class has helped me with my research for my project. I wouldnt know how to research somethings if I didnt have this class because it has taught me how to.

Urvashi Vaid Presentation

Prior to this event I didnt really know what to expect. One thing that I did expect was for her to talk about same sex marriage and the struggles that they face. Somethings that I know about this topic is that only 6 states in the U.S allow same sex marriage. Another thing that I knew about this topic is that it is hard to get the bill passed in the states that dont have it because many people oppose it. She presented the information in many different ways. She referred to things from books that she has wrote, told personal stories, past experiences, examples, facts, and jokes. I learned a lot of things from this presentation that I didnt know before. I learned that some parents in CA voted against marriage equality because they thought that it would affect their children's view/values. Also once fighters in the state win marriage equality they kind of give up on things because they got what they wanted so they dont know where to go from there. I do believe that the speaker is an authority on the topic because she is a lesbian trying to get marriage equality. She is also a lawyer and a director of an LGBT group. She has worked with the LGBT community for 30 years. She has also written 3 books about LGBT people and is currently working on her 4th. Urvashi has also won many awards for the work that she has done. Somethings that I can take from this presentation to help with my alternative viewpoints paper are LGBT viewpoints vary from generation to generation. They also want all equal human rights not just marriage rights. Equality is the first step and it shouldnt be the last. LGBT couples are poorer than heterosexual couple.    

Google 101

During the Google 101 lesson I learned a few things. One thing that I learned is that you can use Google to search for information like you would use on Academic Search Premier. I didn't know that you could use search strings in Google. I also learned that if you do use a search string that instead of using the word "and" you would use a "+". I also learned that you can use other symbols like * and ~. Another thing that I learned from Google 101 is that Google can give you a LOT of results but not all of them are going to be relevant to your topic they might just have one or two words from your search string in the information. I also learned that you can narrow your results by adding words like history, United States, etc. One thing that I thought was really cool that I didn't know before is that you can upload a photo that you are unfamiliar with or want more information about and Google will tell you what it is or information on the picture. I thought that you just put in words into the search box and you get an answer,  but now I know exactly what words and how to put them in the search box to find exactly what I am looking for.

Popular Magazine vs. Scholarly Journal

In the popular magazine that I found it talked about Alex Rodriguez and his usage of anabolic steroids while he was playing baseball. In the scholarly journal that I found it was about steroid use in athletes. It didnt talk about a certain person who used steroids. It talked about who might use steroids, statistics of who used them, effects of usage of steroids, complications that steroids can cause, etc. The main difference between the two is the way that the were writen. The magazine was mainly like an interview saying what one person said and then what the other person said. The scholarly journal was like a book. It had different subheadings for different things about the main topic.

Magazine: Roberts, S., & Epstein, D. (2009). Confronting A-Rod. (Cover story). Sports Illustrated, 110(6), 28-31.

Scholarly Journal:

Walker, J., & Adams, B. (2009). Cutaneous manifestations of anabolic–androgenic steroid use in athletes. International Journal Of Dermatology, 48(10), 1044-1048. doi:10.1111/j.1365-4632.2009.04139.x