Hello people,
here I am again!
I've just lost a looot of time trying to insert music, videos or gadgets on my blog.. but I'm not able to!! I unsuccessfully tried to modify HTML and eventually I gave up!
I think I'll better ask Anna during next lesson :)
Now, turning at more serious matters, I'd like to point out some of my impressions on our last class. I've always found it quite difficult to manage with information from the web. I already knew the sources for an academic work should be checked to be completely reliable, but in the past my searches in the net were often too wide and most sites were useless. I've never made it find all the information required to qualify a web source as 100% trusty. I think it's rather a hard and annoying task to carry on: it means that searching the piece information you're looking for implies further searches about which is the origin of your results and then even further searches about the author's name, his/her career, the date the page was published, the audience who was to be addressed, etc. All these questions over questions stress me so much that I finally take for granted most information needed to clearly identify the source I'm using. I decide just to select contents I'm interested in. I know it's wrong, but I feel so frustrated!
However, during last lesson Sarah gave us really interesting advice to start a research without getting lost. First of all, I appreciated the number of new useful sites and search engines I found. They allow us to simplify searches and saving time because they select valid pieces of information at once; for example, Google Scholar, "The Resource Discovery Network" (www.intute.ac.uk) and DOAJ are very good in tracking academic or specialized works so that it is not necessary to investigate too much about their origins. :) In addition, I am glad to have discovered another wonderful site: Scribd! I didn't have any idea that entire books could be found free on the web!! In fact, this is not as convenient as I imagined because it's difficult to read from the screen and the books should be printed.. but printing is sometimes even more expensive than buy them! :(
Apart from all these new tools, I learnt that, before starting my search, I should fix some main ideas in my mind: throwing oneself right in the middle of the net without having a precise aim can be really dangerous! The first thing to do is SKIMMING, concentrating in our focus and progressively cutting a defined shape of expectations to be fulfilled. So, I can say I have understood some fundamental steps to carry out a research and this will be very helpful for the creation of my final dissertation!
That's all folks ;)
See you soon
Sara
You're right Sara, Sarah's making us discover a lot of useful tools not to get lost among websites! In the past I had the same problems you had, that is, my research was too wide, or I wasn't sure the website was reliable, etc., but now I can say I'm quite prepared to face up to an Internet research. Actually, I think the more you search, the more you're getting used to. It's not only a matter of knowing the right tools to use, it's a matter of trying and trying. Our thesis is gonna be a good training... ; )
RispondiEliminaHi again Sara!
RispondiEliminaNow I'm supposed to find some mistakes in your post... well, I have to admit I don't feel comfortable in doing it because we're both students and I don't think we can really help each other. I mean, I don't feel like I have something to "teach" you, if you get what I'm saying. Maybe I'm gonna correct something it's right! Hihi! Anyway, let's try... I'm gonna write the sentences you wrote in which I think there's a mistake and I'm gonna give you my suggestions, ok?
So, you wrote "I've always found it quite difficult to manage with information from the web." Well, I think it's better to say "I've always found quite difficult to manage with..." because I think that otherwise you have 2 objects.
Then you wrote "...it means that searching the piece information you're looking for implies further searches about which is the origin of your results..." I think it's "piece OF information" and I think it's better to write "about the origin", eliminating "which is".
Next you wrote "All these questions over questions stress me so much that I finally take for granted most information needed to clearly identify the source I'm using. I decide just to select contents I'm interested in. I know it's wrong, but I feel so frustrated!" Well, I believe that you should use the past simple in these sentences because you're talking about what you were used to do in the past, right?
You wrote "They allow us to simplify searches and saving time..." I think it's better either to say "to simplify and to save" or "simplifying and saving".
Then you wrote "I didn't have any idea that entire books could be found free on the web!! In fact, this is not as convenient as I imagined..." Here I think the problem is the link... I read the 2 sentences and I feel it's better to use "actually" instead of "in fact" because you're saying that you thought this was an interesting tool but you found out it's not as useful as you believed at the beginning.
About punctuation, you wrote "I learnt that, before starting my search, I should fix..." I think that you should not put the 2 commas you put because "before" is a subordinator and it doesn't want the comma.
That's all, I hope I didn't say too many silly things! ; )
See you tomorrow! : )