[nabs-l] research methods

[Ashley Bramlett]

Hi all,

I wanted some more ideas on this.  Then I'll have a sheet with ideas for myself and others wo ask me.  I am about to begin a big research paper for my senior class.  All seniors do this to demonstrate critical thinking, organization and writing skills.  Research has been quite challenging.  I use readers a lot but its hard to communicate what I am looking for.  Much research is at the library and books and some other matterial is not accessible.  So my questions.

Do you use your school's databases?  What ones are jaws friendly?  Its been my experience that databases are not very accessible.  There are lots of boxes and info before jaws reads the titles of articles.  In an article I'm sure you read the abstract first to determine relevance.  I do as wel.

How do you skim the article for relevant info?  Or perhaps you read it all?  Scholarly articles are big, about twenty pages long on average from my experience. With jaws or a reader, skipping info is hard since I don't know what I'm looking for exactly.
How do you cite pages?  Does someone read you the page numbers as well?  This has been problematic for me.  I write notes but don't know later what page it was on and cannot skim the article for that info.  

Have you used the librarians for help?  If so, what role did they play?  Did you ask them to search for you and they read you the titles of articles/books?  I have used them and they pointed me to the right databases and card catalog for books but also served as a reader sort of as we gathered info.

I find research frustrating when you think something sounds great and read it but then its not so good.  I think this happens to all students, but since it takes longer for us its more frustrating.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Ashley


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