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*Where It Comes Together*

Friday 19 July 2013

TOPIC 9

INFORMATION ANALYSIS


The availability and growth of the Internet offers all of us, the opportunity to find information and data from all over the world. Internet resources, in particular World Wide Web resources, continue to proliferate at an astonishing rate. Also, some experts say that a new site is placed online every 3 seconds! And it is possible for almost anyone to place anything on the Internet. What I learnt from Information Analysis is about the criteria to evaluate sources which are purpose and scope. Why we have to evaluate? When we use a research or academic library, the books, journals and other resources have already been evaluated by a librarian or by a mechanism set up by a librarian. When we use an index or a database to find information on any given topic, the index or database is often produced by a professional or scholarly organization that selects the journals to be indexed on the basis of their quality. Then, every resource we find has been evaluated in one way or another, before we ever see it. When we are using the World Wide Web, none of this applies, because there are no filters in between us and the Internet. Now that anyone with access to a server and a passing knowledge of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) can put information on the Internet, the problem has become one of sifting through a mass of advertising material and vanity publications  in order to find information of high quality. Moreover, information can be spread over the Internet by anyone without regard to accuracy, validity, or bias. So, using and citing information found over the Web is a little like swimming on a beach without a lifeguard. What we need is to check the accuracy, currency and uniqueness of the information. By doing these steps, we can rely on whether the resource is accurate or not. In addition, we also can analysis an information by looking at their quality of writing, design and layout, organization, navigability, style and functionality, color, multimedia, acces or workability, ease of use, search-ability, brows-ability, software reliability, connectivity, charging policy, copyright, censorship, language, documentation and many more.

TOPIC 8



Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

There are three levels to integrate a text from a source, such as Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting.





 þ Summarizing
When we are summarizing, we put the main idea in our own word which include only the main point. We do not need to use quotation mark during summarizing, instead, use our own word, and state only the most important idea or fact and used as few word as possible. We also have to attribute it to the original source.










 þ Paraphrasing
When we want to paraphrase, it also involves putting a passage from source material in our own words. It can be shorter than the original passage but can also be the same length as the original passage. However, we have to site the source and the date as well as do not use quotation mark during paraphrasing.

þ Quoting
Additionally, we also can quote the original passage where we can use the author’s word exactly, but we have to use quotation mark for less than 40 words. There are some format that we may need to follow in order for us to quote the information. For instance, give the year of publication in parenthesis/bracket after the writer’s name and the page number at the end of the quotation, or the writer’s name, year of publication, page number in parenthesis at the end of the quotation and lastly do not forget to put a period after the parenthesis.

TOPIC 7








CITATION & DOCUMENTING INFORMATION SOURCES

According to Wikipedia (2013), a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression (e.g. [Newell84]) embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of acknowledging the relevance of the works of others to the topic of discussion at the spot where the citation appears.
When we are using someone’s information, we have to cite the information taken, if failure to do so, it will cause plagiarism or also can be considered as stealing someone’s information. There are a few styles that have been introduced to cite information; the common well-known style is APA style. So, what is APA stands for? It stands for American Psychological Association (APA), was established in 1928 by Social Science professionals to provide guidelines for publication in Social Science Journals such as Psychology, Sociology, Education, and Nursing. There are rules that we have to follow in order to cite the information which are for authors, titles, and documentation. In order to cite the information, we have to follow the format of each of the categories such as, books, edited books, journal articles, article from internet, chapter from books, translation books, magazine articles, and many more.
Refers to the References list at the end of the paper
þ The List
ü is labeled References (centered, no font changes)
ü starts at the top of a new page
ü continues page numbering from the last page of text
ü is alphabetical
ü is single spaced
ü Uses a hanging indent (1/2 inch – can be formatted from the Paragraph dialog box in MS Word)
þ Reference contains the following components:
ü - author names or names
ü -publication date
ü -title of the work
ü Publication data
          Sawyer, C., McCarty, P., & Parkin, G. F. (1994). Chemistry for environmental engineering. (4th ed.).  New York : McGraw-Hill.

Documenting Authors (Books)
v One Author:  Koch Jr., R. T. (2004).
format: Author. (Year). Title of Book. Place of Publication : Publisher.
v Two Authors: Stewart, T., & Biffle, G. (1999).
Format: List all the authors. Use ampersand (&) before the last author.(Year). Title of the book. Place of Publication : Publisher.
v Three to Six Authors: Wells, H. G., Lovecraft, H. P., Potter, H. J., Rowling, J. K., & Kirk, J. T. (2005).
Format: List all the authors. Use ampersand (&) before the last author.   (Year).Title of the book. Place of Publication : Publisher. 
v More than Six Authors:  Smith, M., Flanagan, F., Judd, A., Burstyn, E., Bullock, S., Knight, S., et al. (2002).
Format: First author until sixth author, et al. 
(Year). Title. Place of publication : Publisher.








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