Dom Taylor, MA, MLIS

Peace & Conflict Studies, Philosophy, Catholic Studies, and Religion Librarian    dominique.taylor@umanitoba.ca

Research

RLGN 2222 -The Supernatural in Popular Culture

March 26, 2019

Julian: "Is the bank open on Saturdays?"​​

Getting around the world means you have to trust people. The question is how much trust you should give and why. This depends on context.

Me: "Yes!"

Julian: "How do you know??"

Me: "I was there last year, I think."

Julian: "Do you actually know? If I don't make a payment, I'll lose my apartment"

Me: "Oh...I don't actually know. Let's check online."

Julian: "Looks like a blizzard out. Are classes cancelled?"​​

Me: "Definitely!"

Julian: "How do you know??"

Me: "I looked out the window."

Me: "I checked the university homepage."

OR

I'M CITING SOMETHING

 BUT

there are other equally important reasons to cite.

• Expressing yourself meaningfully requires shared rules.
• This is like a board game/ sport. You can modify or disregard some rules, but there comes a point when you are no longer playing the original game.

Following the citation game gives you some abilities by allowing for certain moves:

1. Duty/Obligation: 2-way obligation. If you take others' ideas seriously (by citing them), then people will take your ideas seriously.

2. Licence: Like a license to drive, but this is a license to put an idea forward/critique an idea. This license comes in different strengths. This strength is directly tied to the strength of the idea you are citing and how you explain it.

3. Legitimacy: How seriously people will take your claims depends on how well you use your licenses. The better (and more) connections you have to other ideas, the more likely people will take your ideas seriously.

Vertical (close reading)

Lateral (looking at context)

1

2

Determining the meaning of the text as a standalone document. This includes:

• Looking up definitions of complex terms, jargon, and non-English words (e.g., Latin)
• Assessing  the internal consistency and coherence of the text. Are there contradictory facts or arguments? Are there leaps in the logic of the text (e.g., non sequitur)?
• Identifying clear indications of meaning (e.g., a thesis statement, arguments, or beliefs)
• Working out the structure of the text

Source: Wineburg, S., & McGrew, S. (2017). Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 3048994). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3048994

Determining the meaning of the text through its context. This includes:

• Reviewing secondary sources cited/footnoted in the original text. Is the original source's interpretation accurate ? Do the secondary sources provide more meaning?
• Reading commentary, analysis, and criticism of the original text
• Evaluating the historico-political context of the original text and its author(s). 

Leverage your knowledge of how trust and citation work:

1. A good article or book is usually based on (i.e., cites) other good articles/books (authors use 2 way obligation). In this way, a good article lets you look into the past.
2. Unless it has been very recently published, the article/book you cite has likely been cited by others (authors attempt to create legitimacy and others use that legitimacy for their own work).In this way, a good article lets you look into the future of the original article. GoogleScholar can help with finding who has cited the article you are reading.

Although you will adapt this to your own needs and preferences over time, this is a good workflow to start with:

1. Identify a broad topic that interests you, do some basic research, and narrow down your topic to a specific question. Narrowing can take multiple tries: (A) X-Files + Fandom--->(B)X-File + X-Philes---> (C) X-Files + X-Philes + gender-->(D) "Dana Scully" + Fandom + catholicism OR "Dana Scully" + Fandom+gender.

2. Formulate a focused research question/thesis: neither too broad nor too narrow. This is tricky and will take practice. You can start by answering "who," "what," "why," "when," "where," and "how" questions. Set some parameters (e.g., dates, geographic location, demographic information), but be ready to change them. 

3. From your question/narrow topic, identify keywords, including synonyms and related concepts that you can use in your search. Example: depending on the context "Captain Marvel," "Ms. Marvel," and "Carol Danvers" can be synonyms or at least related. Therefore, it is important to search a set of related/synonymous terms  

4. Combine keywords and phrases into search queries:  Try many different searches and combinations of terms. Expect that it will take at least 10 different searches to get a good feel for what is out there. Use AND, OR, brackets + quotations (""). More on this below. To start, use our basic search engine OR GoogleScholar. Note: if you use GoogleScholar look up your results in our search engine to see if it's peer-reviewed!

5. Use our search engine to do a subject search. More on this below.

6. Keep track of interesting articles!

METHOD

1. Identify the keywords in your research question/thesis. These are generally only the nouns in your question.

2. Identify synonyms and related terms for each keyword/noun.

3. Build a research query that combines these using OPERATORS (see below)

Iteration and experimentation:

Find and refer to sources as you are developing your research question/thesis. Mine them for terminology and/or ways to enhance your topic. This will impact the keywords and even the scope of your thesis.

AND, OR, (), *, "", + Limiters

AND

OR

X-Files

x-phile*

A search for x-files AND x-phile* will find results that contain both terms and will exclude results that only have one of the two terms.

A search for x-files OR x-phile* will find results that contain either of the search terms. This will generate more results. Use OR to combine synonyms.

+

 (), *, "", + Limiters

X-Files

x-phile*

The Library Search has a citation function in the listing. You can also use ZotBib citation generator. These can handle multiple citation formats, including APA, but they aren't perfect, so verify the information using one of the following:

1. Purdue OWL (reference list and in-text) and/or CitationFox (reference list only).
2. UM APA 1 pager (easy to use)

Dom Taylor

email: dominique.taylor@umanitoba.ca

phone: 204.474.9184

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