Chapters 15 and 16

Chapter fifteen of the Bedford Researcher is all about using sources effectively. The first part of the chapter talks about how to use source information to achieve the purpose of your piece. It moves on to describe how to integrate quotes such as partial, complete, and block quotes, how to provide context for your information, how to integrate paraphrases and summaries, how to summarize a group of sources, and how to integrate unusual sources such as numerical information, images, audio, video, and animation. The second part of the chapter describes how to correctly source your information providing in text references, correct documentation, and how to distinguish your work and information, ideas and arguments from that of your sources. It also talks about using the correct documentation system depending on your project type.

The beginning of this chapter was a really nice follow up for the work we were doing with signal phrases and incorporating sources. It just went into greater detail about how to accomplish both of those things effectively. The second part of the chapter felt a little redundant, but was none the less a welcome redundancy. Correctly citing your sources and giving credit where it is due is one of those topics that needs to be repeated over and over not just so people can learn correct forms but also to make sure they don't forget.

Chapter sixteen is all about styling your writing. It talked about using active and passive voice as well as a constant perspective or point of view. The first part of the chapter talked about word choice in respect to the formal or informal language. The second part talked about polishing your writing style by focusing on sentence structure, creating effective transitions, avoiding sexist language, and effectively introducing other authors. It ends by suggesting the best way to improve your writing style is to read a wide variety of materials as often as you can to expose yourself too many variations of writing styles.

I think this chapter going to be very useful over the next couple weeks, especially after the work we've done with signal phrases and incorporating sources. This chapter really talked about something I think we tend to take for granted, your style is always one of those things that is just considered inevitable and obvious. This served as a really nice reminder that though you your style will be apparent regardless of what you write, you still have some control over the writing of your piece and you need to be careful about what you say.

Chapter 9

Chapter nine of the Bedford researcher was all about finding alternative sources.1st Peter chapter describes in detail how to use library sources such as browsing stacks checking out books and periodicals and using interlibrary loans to find sources not on the Internet. It also talks about using library periodically to find journal newspapers. Lastly it talks about using Library Reference Room to find bibliographies and indexes of other sources. The chapter really and goes out of its way to describe the importance of looking through citations and bibliographies to find related works that might be useful.

I think this chapter might have been more helpful had we looked at it earlier in the quarter. At this point I'm having more trouble organizing and determining reliability of the sources that I already have. I feel like that at this point I have so much information I don't really have time to go looking for more. If anything I feel like this would have been a really good place to start the quarter when we began our research on the project because it would have given us a broader view of the subjects out there instead of trying to refined search terms on the Internet.

Bibliography So Far

Bardella, Maria Teresa, et al. “Gluten intolerance: Gender- and Age-Related Differences in Symptoms.” Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology 40.1 (2005): 15-19. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2015.

Galushko, Viktoriya, Richard Gray. “Twenty five years of private wheat breeding in the UK: Lessons for other countries.” Science & Public Policy 41.6 (2014): 765-779. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2015

Gil-Humanes, Javier, et al. “Reduced-Gliadin Wheat Bread: An Alternative to the Gluten-Free Diet for Consumers Suffering Gluten-Related Pathologies” PLOS One 9.3 (2014): 1-9. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Gil-Humanes, Javier, et al. “The Shutdown of Celiac Disease-Related Gliadin Epitopes in Bread Wheat by RNAi Provides Flours with Increased Stability and Better Tolerance to Over-Mixing” PLOS One 9.3 (2014): 1-11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

 Guyenet, Stephan. “Grains and Human Evolution.” Whole Health Source.  N.p. 10 July 2008. Web. 21 Apr. 2015

Hennessy, Maggie. “Celiac Disease Foundation, Plant Geneticist, Challenge Report Linking GMOs to Celiac Diseas, Gluten Sensitivity.” William Reed Business Media. William Reed Business Media, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 5 Apr. 2015.

Kam, Katherine. “Going Gluten-Free.” WebMD. WebMD, 19 July 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Katiraee, Layla. “Do Genetically Modified Foods Cause Gluten Allergies?” Genetic Literacy Project. Genetic Literacy Project, 28 March 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Lásztity, Radomir, Tibor Abonyi. “Prediction of Wheat Quality—Past, Present, Future. A Review.” Food Reviews International 25.2 (2009): 126-141. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Lu, Shan, et al. “Structural Basis for Gluten Intolerance in Celiac Sprue.” Science 297.5590 (2002): 2275-2279. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2015.

Metcalfe, Dean D. “Introduction: What Are the Issues in Addressing the Allergenic Potential of Genetically Modified Foods?” Environmental Health Perspectives 111.8 (2003): 1110-1113. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Milavec, Mojca, et al. “GMO Quantification: Valuable Experience and Insights for the Future.” Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry 406.26 (2014): 6485-6497. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Apr. 2015.

Oraby, Hanaa, et al. “Biological Impact of Feeding Rats with a Genetically Modified-Based Diet.” Turkish Journal of Biology 39.2 (2015): 265-275. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

“Pros and Cons of Genetically Modified Foods.” HealthResearchFunding.org. HealthResearchFunding.org, 4 Dec. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Sarich, Christina. “18 Million Americans Suffer From GMO And Gluten Intolerance.” Natural Society. Natural Society, 8 July 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

“Should You Worry About GMOs?” Tufts University Health &Nutrition Letter 31.9 (2013): 4-5. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Smith, Jeffery M. “Are Genetically Modifies Foods a Gut-Wrenching Combination?” Institute for Responsible Technology. Institute for Responsible Technology. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.

The National Wheat Improvement Committee. “Wheat Improvement: The Truth Unveiled.”(2013): 1-5. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Webb, Densie. “10 Whole Grain Myths Busted.” Environmental Nutrition 38.2 (2015): 6-6. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Wilk-Nielsen, C.R., et al. “Quantification of Dietary DNA in Tissues of Atlantic Salmon ( Salmo salar L.) Fed Genetically Modified Feed Ingredients.” Aquaculture Nutrition 17.2 (2011): e668-e674. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Chapter 3

Chapter three of the Bedford Researcher talks about how to start a project proposal. The first couple of pages begins by directing how to generate a research question, by reflecting on your writing situation and process, then generating potential questions, and finally crafting and refining those questions to reflect your writing situation. After you've developed your research question the chapter goes on to explain how to create a research proposal. It identifies the basis of the proposal such as the title page, an introduction that identifies your topic issue/research question, a review of your literature that represents information and arguments in the sources you've collected, an explanation of how you collect information books journals types of search tools types of strategies, a project timeline, and a working or annotated bibliography.

In reading this chapter I found that I've been looking at this project in completely the wrong way. I've been stressing out too much about what exactly I'm arguing when I should have been paying more attention on just getting a broader scope of the topic in general. This chapter really helped me to clear up a few things and helped me realize that I had all but changed my mind about what it is I think I was going to argue in my research paper. I think writing this proposal really helped clarify things for me on which sources I actually found the most useful.

Chapter 7

Chapter seven of the Bedford Researcher describes all aspects plagiarism, from what it is to how to avoid it. The beginning of the chapter focuses on differentiating between intentional plagiarism and unintentional plagiarism. The former, of course is the use of another person’s writing that you put under your own name and try to take credit for. The book describes that this can range from just copying passages to entire documents, or closely paraphrasing. Unintentional plagiarism they describe as inadequate quotations or lack of clear difference between your ideas and the sources. The chapter goes into more depth about both forms, as well as give advice on how best to avoid them.

I actually found this chapter to be more helpful than I had anticipated. Plagiarism, like citing sources, was something I heard about over and over again from teachers over the years, so preparing to read this chapter felt rather redundant. But, like with all the work we’ve been doing with how to correctly cite sources, I was yet again faced with the reality that as many times as I had heard people use the term plagiarism, I really had only the most basic understanding of what is was or how to avoid it. The various scenarios the book runs through make the subject much clearer in my mind, and I am greatly appreciative of having explanations on things such as what is considered to be common knowledge.  

Chapters 5 and 8

Chapter five of the Bedford Researcher talks about evaluating your sources. It breaks the sources down into several categories that should each be looked at and evaluated individually to determine whether or not you would be useful to your research project. The chapter says that you should evaluate the source’s relevance, the objectivity of the author, the objectivity of the publisher, the timeliness, whether or not it is comprehensive, and the genre when determining its usefulness. The chapter also talked about how to best evaluate web sources, by examining the domain, so you can be sure only to use reliable sources.

I think this chapter is going to be very useful over the next week as I continue to gather sources for my research project. Having the evaluation process broken down into easily comprehensible steps will make it easier for me to review my sources and determine the usefulness of potential sources as I continue to look online. The information in the chapter seemed somewhat obvious, but it was the types of obvious that is easily forgotten, like when you think you know the meaning of a word but then can’t explain it to anyone. I think in the back of my mind, my head was thinking, “of course you look at the bias of the author when you are evaluating!” but the rest of my brain wasn’t necessarily following that advice.

 

Chapter eight was all about researching information digitally. It breaks down the process into preparing your search by identifying keys words or phrases from your proposal plan to use in the search. It then goes on to explain how to search with an online library catalog, a database, a Web search site, or media search sites. The chapter explains the uses of each for not only finding specific sources, but also for connecting you to similar articles or webpages to help in the search for sources. It also describes how you can limit or edit you searches to find sources with only specific, relevant information instead of vaguely connected pages that are unhelpful to your project topic.

Like before, there were pieces of this chapter that I felt were somewhat obvious or redundant, but at the same time it was all useful and helpful information to have. I can’t say that I’ve ever really gone so far as to evaluate the search engine I was using, I have always just stuck with Google unless instructed to go somewhere else. What I found to be the most useful about this chapter is that while each section was describing how best to use a database or online library, it was also providing the leading sites to use for finding specific kinds of information, be it audio, video, images, etc.

Chapter 6

Chapter six acts as a continuation of previous chapters on researching your topic for your project. It picks up on the research instructions from chapter four and goes into greater depth about your note taking process. The chapter explains the best way for keeping track of your notes throughout the researching process by organizing printed information and digital information, and recording notes systematically. In your notes, they suggest that it would be good to include exact quotes, paraphrased passages of key ideas, summaries of whole passages, and/or your own reactions and thoughts about the passage. The chapter emphasizes that no matter how you organize your notes, it is best to stick with the same organizational style throughout the research process so that things do not fall through the cracks. The end of the chapter focuses on instructions for how to make and use a bibliography or annotated bibliography verses a works cited page.

I can really see how this chapter connects with the work we were doing for finding sources in class and the source analysis that has been assigned for homework.  I think the instructions for using the annotated bibliography are going to be very useful in the coming week as we gather more and more sources for our research projects. Another thing I found to be useful was the explanation of the rules for quoting a section of text. I have had this explained to me many times before, but it never seems to stick, so having yet another source refresh my memory and drill it into my head is always appreciated.