I am desperately trying to get my writing mojo back so I've been digging around the forum. You guys always inspire me. I want to say how special I think this place is and how great it is that everyone is so willing to share their own writing and research tips.
I've learned a bit about loyalty to a site. I've been off away from C-C and let me tell you, there just is no place that even comes close to comparing!
I've learned my lesson!
I've made a commitment to start writing again this year. I've written a few articles here and there but nothing to "write home about."
Thanks for your inspiration everyone.
Writing for a Specific Audience
Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed
I am desperately trying to get my writing mojo back so I've been digging around the forum. You guys always inspire me. I want to say how special I think this place is and how great it is that everyone is so willing to share their own writing and research tips.
I've learned a bit about loyalty to a site. I've been off away from C-C and let me tell you, there just is no place that even comes close to comparing!
I've learned my lesson!
I've made a commitment to start writing again this year. I've written a few articles here and there but nothing to "write home about."
Thanks for your inspiration everyone.
I've learned a bit about loyalty to a site. I've been off away from C-C and let me tell you, there just is no place that even comes close to comparing!
I've learned my lesson!
I've made a commitment to start writing again this year. I've written a few articles here and there but nothing to "write home about."
Thanks for your inspiration everyone.
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Celeste Stewart
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Elizabeth Ann West
- Posts: 561
- Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2007 4:42 am
- Location: Moncks Corner, SC
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Another great way to research for refereed or peer edited journals online is through your local library. I live a little out in the boonies, and the county library here offers a virutal article service that I can access from their webpage with just my library card number.
For anyone who doesn't know, refereed or peer edited journals are usually journals on a specific subject where any research reports or articles have been evaluated by peers in the field for appropriate methodology and accuracy of sources.
These articles can be very cumbersome to go through if you aren't used to reading them, but the summaries before the articles should help. It's also okay to be a critic yourself. For example, one chief criticism of research is that it is typically conducted on graduating seniors or college students, who are also often getting extra credit for participation, which may or may not be an accurate cross section of the population being examined. In other words, a study of sleep deprivation in college freshman is not necessarrily going to give the same results of a sleep deprivation study of middle aged men and women. Yet, the AP is notorious for taking statistics from the college study and running with it to say something like "And 60% of women (really it was like 60 women ages 18-21 out of 100 sampled) were found to have problems sleeping after eating chocolate."
I've gone off on a tangent here. My point is, peer edited journals are a better source than just random studies, but even then, be careful you aren't applying results too liberally to other hypotheses or arguments that are in fact unrelated.
Always Smiling,
Elizabeth West
For anyone who doesn't know, refereed or peer edited journals are usually journals on a specific subject where any research reports or articles have been evaluated by peers in the field for appropriate methodology and accuracy of sources.
These articles can be very cumbersome to go through if you aren't used to reading them, but the summaries before the articles should help. It's also okay to be a critic yourself. For example, one chief criticism of research is that it is typically conducted on graduating seniors or college students, who are also often getting extra credit for participation, which may or may not be an accurate cross section of the population being examined. In other words, a study of sleep deprivation in college freshman is not necessarrily going to give the same results of a sleep deprivation study of middle aged men and women. Yet, the AP is notorious for taking statistics from the college study and running with it to say something like "And 60% of women (really it was like 60 women ages 18-21 out of 100 sampled) were found to have problems sleeping after eating chocolate."
I've gone off on a tangent here. My point is, peer edited journals are a better source than just random studies, but even then, be careful you aren't applying results too liberally to other hypotheses or arguments that are in fact unrelated.
Always Smiling,
Elizabeth West
Excellent point. I used to work at a sociological research center - reading these articles was part of my job. One huge problem is that not all scientists are writers - so they don't always state clearly what they mean.
It's also important to look at the date of the study. Certain searches don't always bring up the most recent studies first. Some of these are made obsolete as soon as they are published . . . probably as a result of scientific one-upmanship.
Ed
It's also important to look at the date of the study. Certain searches don't always bring up the most recent studies first. Some of these are made obsolete as soon as they are published . . . probably as a result of scientific one-upmanship.
Ed