When beginning any technical document, it is crucial to have valuable research performed correctly. Our White Paper Project revolves around the idea of providing the correct information for home owners to make the proper decision if renewable energy is right for their home and choose a type of domestic renewable energy source. Part three of The Thompson Handbook suggests several good processes of potential research methods when beginning our White Paper Project. And because of the technical nature of a white paper, it is important to have a strong foundation of research before committing to anything else.
Planning the research process is the critical first step our team needs to complete. The Thompson Handbook proposes the following steps: organize a to-do list and order the steps accordingly, schedule commitments properly, identify more specific deadlines. In addition to the general process, it would be wise to pay attention to the unexpected, manage daily schedules, and utilize task lists.
For our white paper application, the research that would supply our team with the most effective information is an online approach. In part 3, section 15 of The Thompson Handbook, the author offers several good ideas for an approach. This section begins by explaining many of the basic web browsing techniques and search methods by utilizing such things like Boolean searches and Metasearches. Something that many can find useful is the large amount of worthwhile websites used for extensive research. Personally, I typically focus on the main search engines to do my online research. Another important topic The Thompson Handbook brings to our attention about online research is website credibility. To Purdue students, website credibility in relation to online research means “Wikipedia is not a credible website.” But there is a large amount of websites that do not publish information according to editorial standards.
Internet Searches & Website Credibility
I'm also planning to try the Boolean operators in my internet searches. Previously, I've only used quotations and +/- symbols, which can also yield more valuable results. As for credibility, I think that this is a major shortcoming for many novice researchers. A lot of people believe anything that they read or see on the internet. I agree that Wikipedia may not be the most credible website, but it's a good place to start. It can give you new ideas for search words or other items related to your topic, as well as a list of references from the writers that have contributed to each page.
WikiWiki
Yeah when professors discuss documenting sources, they always mention that Wikipedia is not a credible source. I think that there is a lot of good information on Wikipedia and it will be a credible source one day but I understand why it is not. People can edit the documents at any time and that is horrible. I like how people put the sources on the bottom of the document because most of the time those sources can be search for on the web. With a Metasearch or a Boolean search, mostly everything can be found pretty easily on the web.
Research & Checklist
First, knowing what your topic is the big step. After you know what your topic is, researching is a huge part of your time in making sure that what you are writing and citing the resources. This can sometimes be difficult when looking into a project that has little information on it.
Secondly, having a to-do list is a great for keeping everyone on track and keeping a visual goal. With the white paper project and all of the other work we, being college students, have assigned adds up quickly and it is easy to loose focus and forget to do things.
Zebulon Rouse
I think your topic is a good
I think your topic is a good one; however I think the primary audience of homeowners is a very large primary group, the way I understood the reading was that the primary group of white papers in not really supposed to be a very large, general group of people. I liked that you included the steps of doing good research in this blog because it has helped me to get a little more organized with my research process. I agree that Wikipedia is not always a credible source, and should not be sourced in your final document, but I always like to read over a wiki document in order to get a better idea on a subject, but I never use it has a source.
Credibility
I like your point about credibility. The book brought up para-sites, but I think you are right that there are a lot of websites out there that don't have any kind of editorial standards. I know Wikipedia is supposed to be taken with a grain, but at least the reader has assurance that many searching eyes have gone through the entries and corrected inaccurate information, at least with popular topics.
I usually try to stick to ".edu" addresses I come accross when I'm doing research. It's a risky proposition trusting random websites. People generally love to go on about topics they aren't properly informed about, and it can be tough not to fall into the illusion of credibility on the internet.