Unit 2 Learning Activity 2.5

According to my wife, I enjoy “fiddling with gadgets.” Which is true, and I appreciate technology, but I do not enjoy reading anything on a computer screen with the sole exception being anything related to my fantasy hockey team. I despise reading articles and books on a computer, iPad, or kindle, but given my location, my cheapness reluctance to buy a printer, and the nature of research I have little choice. I envision research being like the scene in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, where Gandalf, with a drink in his hand and a pipe in his mouth is pouring through papers revealing the stories of yesteryears.

I tend to be stubborn and stuck in my ways. I have significant experience with JSTOR, Academic Search Premier, E-Journals from Ebsco, ATLA Religion Database, Philosopher’s Index, and Sage Journals Online. As an undergrad my personal favourite was JSTOR, I have fond memories downloading abstracts, articles, and printing them on other people’s printers without a worry in the world, ignorant to the cost of ink cartridges. Those were the days.

As I embark on this new journey of research, I will rely on scholarly articles, e-books, and any relevant conference I can attend. To effectively locate relevant material I will rely on the databases I am most familiar with but will also use Google Scholar and OneSearch.

To ensure the credibility of my sources, I will rely on the following questions:

–          Who wrote it?

–          Is it current?

–          Why did the author write it?

–          How was the article or book published? Is it peer reviewed?

–          What are the presuppositions of the author?

Once you have determined if a source is credible, one must also determine if it is reliable and adds value to your research. To do so, one must examine the book or article itself. Does it provide accurate information? Does the conclusion follow from the premises? Does the evidence support the conclusion? These are just some of the questions one must ask as they determine the reliability of a source.  Arguments can take different forms, arguments by example, arguments by analogy, arguments by authority, arguments about cause, and then there are deductive and inductive arguments. Depending on the argument the researcher must understand what questions to ask to determine if the book or article is valid and relevant to the current discussion.

Unit 2 Learning Activities