Fluent Essays

EN 121: Week 3 Assignment This assignment assesses your knowledge on primary and secondary sources (refer to lecture notes and textbook). The assignment contains TWO parts; please be sure to complete the entire assignment. Lecture notes on are the attachments and the text book source is: Chapter 11.4 entitled: "Strategies for Gathering Reliable Information". (only read section 4 of chapter 11)  Identifying Primary and Secondary Sources v Primary Source: a record made by people who saw or took part in an event (originates from the past) v Secondary Source: a record of an event written by someone not there at the time  Part 1:  Directions: Determine whether the following are primary or secondary sources. Explain your reasoning in 1-2 COMPLETE SENTENCES. for each:  · The story your grandfather tells you about his experience during the Korean War. · A letter written by George Washington to his mother about the latest developments in the Revolutionary War.  · The Diary of Anne Frank - the published diary of a teenage girl who experiences the Holocaust first hand.  · Your World History textbook or an encyclopedia.  · Your high school diploma.  · A photograph of you and your friends at your 8th birthday party.   · The information from the museum tour guide who shows you around the exhibit and shares facts with you.  · A mummy from ancient Egypt.  · A diary titled “Life in the Mines” from a miner named Lucky Noah who lived in Idaho in the 1870’s. · A magazine article from 2011 entitled “Mining in the Old West in the 1860’s to the 1890’s”. · An original photograph from the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that you found in your grandparents’ photo album. · An original World War I uniform worn by your great grandfather. · An encyclopedia entry on the Vietnam War. · The diary of Anne Frank (a young girl who lived in hiding during the Holocaust) · Sheet music that was used to play military tunes during the Revolutionary War · A web site that summarizes Ancient Roman mythology · A map of China created during ancient times. · An ancient tablet of Babylonian King Hammurabi’s Code of Laws · Pictures taken by your Aunt Sally of the World Trade Center attack · A newspaper article outlining the effect of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan · A manuscript of Barack Obama’s first speech as President. · An ancient Egyptian mummy you saw at a museum. Part 2: Directions: List 3 possible primary or secondary sources you can use for the research topic below. Next, explain in 3-4 sentences why you can you use those sources for the topic.  You are researching the lives of Russian soldiers during WWII. You are researching the burial practices of Egyptian Pharaohs. You are researching about the conflict in Afghanistan. You are researching the 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco. Please place in  MS Word file. Primary & Secondary Sources Writers classify research resources in two categories: primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are direct, firsthand sources of information or data. For example, if you were writing a paper about the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, the text of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights would be a primary source. Other primary sources include the following: · Research studies · Literary texts · Historical documents such as diaries or letters · Autobiographies or other personal accounts Secondary sources discuss, interpret, analyze, consolidate, or otherwise rework information from primary sources. In researching a paper about the First Amendment, you might read articles about legal cases that involved First Amendment rights, or editorials expressing commentary on the First Amendment. These sources would be considered secondary sources because they are one step removed from the primary source of information. The following are examples of secondary sources: · Scholarly journal articles · Trade journal articles · Popular Magazine articles · Literary and scientific reviews · Television documentaries When you search for periodicals, be sure to distinguish among different types. Mass-market publications, such as newspapers and popular magazines, differ from scholarly publications in their accessibility, audience, and purpose. Newspapers and magazines are written for a broader audience than scholarly journals. Their content is usually quite accessible and easy to read. Trade magazines that target readers within a particular industry may presume the reader has background knowledge, but these publications are still reader-friendly for a broader audience. Their purpose is to inform and, often, to entertain or persuade readers as well. Scholarly or academic journals are written for a much smaller and more expert audience. The creators of these publications assume that most of their readers are already familiar with the main topic of the journal. The target audience is also highly educated. Informing is the primary purpose of a scholarly journal. While a journal article may advance an agenda or advocate a position, the content will still be presented in an objective style and formal tone. Entertaining readers with breezy comments and splashy graphics is not a priority. Because of these differences, scholarly journals are more challenging to read. That doesn’t mean you should avoid them. On the contrary, they can provide in-depth information unavailable elsewhere. Because knowledgeable professionals carefully review the content before publication, scholarly journals are far more reliable than much of the information available in popular media. Seek out academic journals along with other resources. Just be prepared to spend a little more time processing the information. Identifying Primary and Secondary Sources · Primary Source: a record made by people who saw or took part in an event (originates from the past) · Secondary Source: a record of an event written by someone not there at the time Part 1: Directions: Determine whether the following are primary or secondary sources. Explain your reasoning in 1-2 COMPLETE SENTENCES. · The story your grandfather tells you about his experience during the Korean War. · A letter written by George Washington to his mother about the latest developments in the Revolutionary War. · The Diary of Anne Frank - the published diary of a teenage girl who experiences the Holocaust first hand. · Your World History textbook or an encyclopedia. · Your high school diploma. · A photograph of you and your friends at your 8th birthday party. · The information from the museum tour guide who shows you around the exhibit and shares facts with you. · A mummy from ancient Egypt. · A diary titled “Life in the Mines” from a miner named Lucky Noah who lived in Idaho in the 1870’s. · A magazine article from 2011 entitled “Mining in the Old West in the 1860’s to the 1890’s”. · An original photograph from the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that you found in your grandparents’ photo album. · An original World War I uniform worn by your great grandfather. · An encyclopedia entry on the Vietnam War. · The diary of Anne Frank (a young girl who lived in hiding during the Holocaust) · Sheet music that was used to play military tunes during the Revolutionary War · A web site that summarizes Ancient Roman mythology · A map of China created during ancient times. · An ancient tablet of Babylonian King Hammurabi’s Code of Laws · Pictures taken by your Aunt Sally of the World Trade Center attack · A newspaper article outlining the effect of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan · A manuscript of Barack Obama’s first speech as President. · An ancient Egyptian mummy you saw at a museum. Part 2: Directions: List 3 possible primary or secondary sources you can use for the research topic below. Next, explain in 3-4 sentences why you can you use those sources for the topic. You are researching the lives of Russian soldiers during WWII. You are researching the burial practices of Egyptian Pharaohs. You are researching about the conflict in Afghanistan. You are researching the 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator.  A URL is just the internet address for any given webpage: URL Understanding the component parts of a URL can be helpful in a variety of situations. Here are just a few reasons why understanding URLs is useful: Comment by Joanne Saporito: Link example of an URL · The URL often reveals key information about a site   · An understanding of URLs provides the needed foundation for many advanced search strategies · A heightened attention to URLs helps searchers recognize fraudulent sites Locate the protocol The “protocol” is the first part of URL. Some browsers simplify how addresses are displayed by hiding the protocol:  for example, in Chrome and Firefox, http://www.aclu.org displays as aclu.org The protocol https indicates that information sent through the page will be encrypted, and therefore harder to read if some third party intercepts the information. (The next time you are entering a username and password on a page, check for the “https” protocol.) Locate the domain name The “domain name” identifies the site that contains the page you are viewing. It appears just before the first single slash (/). If there is no single slash, then the domain name is whatever appears at the end of the URL. For example, the following URLs all refer to pages on the American Civil Liberties Union site: https://www.aclu.org/defending-our-rights/court-battles https://www.aclu.org/issues/disability-rights Being able to locate the domain name in a URL allows you to identify the entity that hosts the page you are viewing—a piece of information that is often crucial to understanding the nature of your source. Recognize sub-directories Elements of the URL that appear after the domain indicate different sub-directories. For example: https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform In the example above, “issues,” “criminal-law,” and “reform” are sub-directories of the domain aclu.org. Think of these as folders within folders.  Recognize subdomains Subdomains are similar to sub-directories in that they provide a way for website developers to separate content, but subdomains appear before the domain name in the URL.  Don’t let this trip you up.  The domain name is still the content that appears pressed up against the first single slash (/) or—if there is no single slash—at the very end of the URL. For example, the domain name in all of the following URLs is google.com www.google.com books.google.com https://accounts.google.com/Login Pay attention to the placement of the dots.  The following is not a Google page:  www.mgoogle.com  Here the domain is mgoogle.com, not google.com Recognize top-level domains In the domain name aclu.org, the “top-level domain” is .org.  The top-level domain .org was originally intended for use by non-profit organizations—and many non-profits continue to use it—but it is now open to anyone. In the domain name amazon.com, the top-level domain is .com.  Short for “commercial,” .com is the most common top-level domain in the world and is now used for a wide variety of sites—not just the sites of commercial enterprises. Some top-level domains have retained their original meanings and are especially helpful to know:Below is a table to provide some domain descriptions and examples. domain description example .edu university site http://www.nu.edu gov government site http://www.senate.gov .mil military site http://www.army.mil Some domains include a country domain extension—or “country code top level domain.”  Here are some examples: Below is a table to describe the code, country and example of other extensions used for domains.  code country example .in India indianrail.gov.in .de Germany www.spiegel.de .ca Canada www.cbc.ca .jp Japan www.nicovideo.jp .uk United Kingdom www.ima.org.uk Pay attention to country domain extensions. When present in a URL, they represent a core component of the domain. Note, for example, that hydra.com and hydra.com.gr are different domains. The two are unrelated sites run by unrelated entities.  For a comprehensive list of top-level domains, consult the following: · IANA Root Zone Database Use your understanding of URLs to enhance your web searching Once you understand URLs, certain kinds of advanced search strategies become easier to conceptualize, remember, and implement—for example, filtering by domain and top-level domain.  Filter by top-level domain If you know that the kind of information you are seeking is most likely to appear on a site with a particular type of top-level domain, you can restrict your search to this type of site using the site: search operator. For example, if you are seeking government documents on the topic of student loans, then a search for student loans site:gov will return only results with the top-level domain gov, filtering out a large number of sites that are not relevant to your research needs.   Filter by domain If you know the domain of the site on which your information will appear, you can use site: to search only that site.  For example, a search for sample tests site:dmv.ca.gov will return only pages located on the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) website (the domain of which is dmv.ca.gov). The site: operator works in all major search engines (Google, Bing, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, etc.). Adapted from Christine Photinos, National University via a Creative Commons License Domain Name Sub-directories An Introduction to Primary and Secondary Sources What are primary sources? Original records from the past recorded by people who were: Involved in the event Witnessed the event, OR Knew the persons involved in the event They can also be objects (artifacts) or visual evidence. They give you an idea about what people alive at the time saw or thought about the event. Also.. primary sources Reflects only one point of view and may contain a person’s bias (prejudice) toward an event. Examples of primary sources: Books, magazines, newspapers Printed Publications Diaries, journals, records Examples of primary sources: Visual Materials Paintings, drawings, sculpture photographs, film, maps Why Use Primary Sources? To explain how major events are related to each other in time. To think critically and distinguish between fact and opinion. To recognize point of view in print and visual materials. What are secondary sources? Secondary sources are made at a later time. Although they can be useful and reliable, they cannot reflect what people who lived at the time thought or felt about the event. But they can represent a more fair account of the event because they can include more than one point of view, or may include information that was unavailable at the time of the event. Examples of secondary sources: Textbooks, biographies, histories, newspaper report by someone who was not present Charts, graphs, or images created AFTER the time period. Why Use Secondary Sources? To get expert opinions in order to evaluate what really happened. To gain insight by examining the same event from different perspectives. To form your own opinion. To save time by reading information collected from a number of different sources. Ask these questions about every source… No MATTER WHAT! Who wrote this? What does it say? When was it written? Where was it written? Why was it written? Wrap Up It is important to determine the type of information you are looking at. Primary sources are original sources of information Secondary sources summarize, analyze, or critique primary sources Both primary and secondary sources can be good sources of information, but you need to critically evaluate them