Journalism: Hard and soft resources. What is the difference? How do we use them?

1. Research
Resources

2. Hard copy
• It may be the 21st century, but hard copy
resources are still valuable tools when
performing research.
• Can you think of any hard copy resources?
• List them:

3. Hard copy resources
• Personal diaries
• Encyclopedias
• Newspapers
• Journals
• Dictionaries
• Date Books/Year books
• Official records (court, family, historical)
• Textbooks
• Did you get all these?

4. Soft copy resources
• You can find a number of sources online, or
soft copy resources.
• See how many you can list:

5. Soft Copy Resources:
• Online newspapers
• Online Journals
• Online encyclopedias
• Online diaries or recordings
• Letters
• Databases

6. Primary & Secondary
• There is a difference between the two types
of resources.
• A primary source is a source provided by an
eye witness. Such sources are:
• Diaries, letters, articles written by an
eyewitness, speeches, or private journals.

7. Secondary
• Secondary sources are sources written by
experts, but they were not eyewitnesses or
there when an event took place.
• These include: textbooks, encyclopedias,
professional journals, newspaper articles,
the Internet or Computer Software.

8. Reliability
• Before you explore sources, you need to
know if they are reliable or not. There are
several ways to determine if a source is
reliable or not.
• Play the game to see if you know your stuff!
• http://classtools.net/widgets/dustbin_8/asW
7n.htm

9. How did you do?
• If you did really well, we are ready to move
on!
• Next we will look at the research PROCESS

10. Step one: Brainstorming
• This is a process in itself. You need to decide
on a topic and then narrow the topic down
to manageable size. You learned a little
about this in the Organization unit when you
organized your essay.
• One way to help you is to use a graphic
organizer.

11. Use a Map to Organize your thoughts

12. Narrow the topic
• As an example, you may want to research
the origin of the Sock Monkey. That is the
main topic and goes in the center of the
organizer.
• Now, you need to figure out what else you
want to know…A KWL chart can help you
too.

13. Topic: Origin of the sock Monkey
• What is important to know?
• Who began this fad?
• When did it begin?
• Why did it start?
• Who owns the rights to this toy?
• Why is it so popular?
• What kinds of sock monkeys are available
today?
• How can you tell if you own an original Sock
Monkey?

14. Notice the questions:
• Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How
are the keys to asking probing questions.
Start with these. You will find the more you
learn, the more questions
you will have!

15. Next:
• Now it’s time to put that knowledge of
sources to use!
• Where should you start?
• If you are not sure, you can ask your teacher,
a parent or a librarian.

16. Notes
• The next step is to take good notes.
• This involves good summary skills and some
organization. You will need to jot down where
you got your information too.
• Look at the sample on the next slide to see the
best way to format your note cards.
• You should separate the note cards according
to the source first. Then you may want to
separate them according to the information
when synthesizing your information. See Slide #
21.

17. Effective Note cards

18. Important!!!
• One thing you did not see on that note card:
• If the source was taken from the Internet, you
will need the DATE you took it off the net, the
URL and the title and author (if there is an
author) of the article and the web site.
• To cite the source easily, plug this information
into www.easybib.org
• You can create a free account and save all of
your sources for the bibliography.

19. Example:

20. Summarizing
• It is sometimes best to take down more
information than you need. You can weed it
out as you go along.
• Get the important information that answers
your questions.

21. Putting the pieces together
• Once you have information from various
sources, you will have to fit it all together,
like a puzzle. You need to select what piece
of information belongs with another when
you are using two or more sources. This
includes any illustrations you may need.
(Illustrations need to be cited as well).

22. The Thesis Statement
• This is one very important aspect of your research
paper. This is the sentence or group of sentences
that will let the reader know just what you are going
to cover in the paper.
• The Sock Monkey is one of the most loved and most
hated toys of all time. This fad began as a necessity for
workers and found its way into the hearts of children
all over the United States. Today, there are over one
million Sock Monkeys in existence in homes all across
America. But where did the Sock Monkey phenomenon
begin and why?

23. Now you can decide what is next
• Create an outline to help you stay on topic
• Gather only the information you need.
• Write your rough draft
• Cite your sources
• Revise your paper
• Edit your paper
• Make sure all sources are in the Works Cited
page or Bibliography.

24. Success!
• If you follow theses steps when writing a
research paper, you will succeed! And your
teacher may just adopt you!

25. Questions?
• Please ask any questions you may feel
necessary at this time. We will cover
Documenting and citing sources in greater
detail tomorrow.
• See if you know your research Process:
• http://classtools.net/widgets/quiz_7/aukDc.h
tm