Speaker 1: I know most students really do not enjoy research projects, and I understand why. The research process can be long, difficult, and confusing. But the ability to conduct good research is actually one of the most valuable skills you can learn in my class, because it is one that you can use for the rest of your life. Sure, you probably won't be researching authors of novels outside of my class, but anytime you have to make a major purchase, or choose a new school or job, or try to plan a big trip, you will need to do research so you make a good choice and get the best results for your money and time. In class, we practice with easier research topics like historical events or author's backgrounds, but you can take these research skills and apply them to so many decisions you'll need to make in the future. So don't hate on research. Research is your friend. Research helps you to not get conned out of your money. When you are getting started with research, you have three steps to complete before you actually start researching. First, obviously, you need to decide on the topic you're researching. Second, you need to come up with some specific questions you have about the topic to help guide and focus your research. And third, you'll need to find sources of information that answer your focus questions. I told you earlier that research is useful in real life, so for an example, we're going to help my parents research an upcoming big purchase—a new car. They really don't like their current car. They admit that they bought it too quickly and didn't take the time to learn enough about it, so this research will help them to make a better purchase this time. So our research topic for this example is the Honda Accord and Civic, because those are the two models they're trying to decide between. For the focus questions, there are three main points they want to learn about. Each car's gas mileage, each car's safety rating and reliability, and each car's cost versus any features it offers, like sound system, lighting, and interior elements. So now we need to search for sources that will give us information to answer those questions. But I don't want my parents to end up with a crappy car that they hate like they did last time, so we need to find really credible, trustworthy sources that provide the most accurate information possible so my parents can make a good purchase. This resource is available via our Google Resources folder, or you may have a hardcopy from class. This details how you tell which sources are credible and reliable for your research. First, you want to look at the author or publisher of the source. Who is responsible for this book or website or information that you found? You want the author or publishing organization to be knowledgeable in your topic and trustworthy about their opinion. You also want to consider the author's purpose in the source. Do they show any bias? Are they trying to persuade you in any way that might distort the information? Also consider where they got their information. For example, if you find a website that lists a whole bunch of opinions about cars but doesn't offer any info about how they formed those opinions or where they got it, then it probably isn't a good source to use. Let's look at a few sample sources now. The first source I thought of was the Honda website. This seemed like a good place to start, but as I considered this source, I realized it has some positives but also some negatives. Honda is definitely reputable. Their cars are known to be well-made and the company is respected in the automotive community. The website is easy to access and provides details about the car's amenities, gas mileage, and cost. It also has a feature that allows for side-by-side comparison of different vehicles, so I can easily note the differences between the two cars my parents are interested in. However, this source also has some downfalls. First, there is an obvious bias. Honda is trying to sell its cars, so of course they're biased in favor of their own vehicles. Second, I noticed that the prices listed on the homepages don't seem to be totally accurate. They don't include things like tax and closing costs, and they don't include a lot of the features that can be added to the car. It's almost like they're trying to make the car appear cheaper than it really will be if you choose to buy it. In the same way, the gas prices seem to change. On some pages, it showed the car got 30-38 gas mileage, which is pretty good, but another page showed the car got 28-35 or something else. These discrepancies made me wary of trusting all of their information. I want to look for some more sources to verify the information. The next site I found was a Quora site, which is basically a question and answer blog. People can post questions, and then other people from the general public can log in and offer answers. This source offered a lot of opinions from regular car owners. It didn't seem to include much bias because so many people were just offering their own opinions. However, this source had a lot of downfalls. First, there's no way for me to know if these answers are accurate. These people aren't mechanics or car salesmen. They don't necessarily have any background knowledge in car maintenance. I mean, some of them might, but there's no way for me to know for sure, so I can't verify that their information is accurate. Second, since anyone can post on these sites, how do I know what to believe? And finally, the people responding might not care about the things my parents are looking for in a car, so the information could be lacking. All in all, I don't think I'm going to use this site as a source. There are just too many doubts and questions about the reliability of the information. The final source I found was a Kelley Blue Book comparison of the Accord and Civic. I feel really good about this source. Kelley Blue Book is a reputable, trusted critic of vehicles. They are known to offer no bias, but rather present only factual evaluations of new cars. This article is perfect for my research because it provides a comparison of both cars, focusing on the amenities, gas mileage, and safety test drive. It doesn't cover every detail about the cars like the Honda site does, but it does cover the main points that my parents were interested in. This is definitely a good site for my research. I'll probably keep looking, but between this site and the Honda site, I'm in good shape to start answering some of my parents' questions. I do want to take a minute to address the big question that is no doubt brewing in your head. Ms. Adams, what about Wikipedia? I know students love Wikipedia, and my students know I do not love it, so let me explain why. Wikipedia does have some good points. It's easy to access. It provides basic information. It also sometimes offers a list of sources for further reading, and those sources can be really helpful for further research. My big issue with Wikipedia, though, is that it is a blog. Just like Quora, anyone can post to it, so you can't necessarily trust the information you're reading as accurate. They are getting better about fact-checking and editing, but I would rather find a quality site that I know is reliable instead of crossing my fingers and hoping that whatever I read on Wikipedia is true. I do encourage my students to check Wikipedia for their source lists, because those can offer you a good spot to start with finding more sources, but I would skip the wiki articles themselves. Remember, research isn't meant to be frustrating or bore you to death. Research is about gaining knowledge, because knowledge gives you power. For example, when I last purchased a car for myself, I went to the dealership to trade in my old one. The salesman said he would only give me $500 for my car because it was so old, but I had done my research on the value of my car's parts, and I had verified that my car was actually worth $1,500. If I hadn't done that research, that guy would have conned me out of $1,000. But since I knew better, I argued the point with him and got him to admit that my car was actually worth much more than he was trying to pay. Research pays off in so many ways.