Topic-5: Synthesis

Salaaaaaaam

Synthesis is the fifth step of the research process (Big6). Therefore, I learnt that synthesizing can be defined as our lecturer explained that Clay stated that “Synthesizing is like putting a puzzle together. You have to sort out your thinking and put it in the right place.”

After that, our lecturer explained that synthesis involves organization. In fact, synthesis has many elements that can produce effective organization of information. The effective information is very important. Therefore, our lecturer mentioned some importance of effective organization of information. The first importance of effective organization of information is that to communicate effectively to the audience, the information has to be organized logically. The second importance of effective organization of information is to allow people to understand easily. The third importance of effective organization of information is that a success organization is a result of well-organized information in professional report and presentation. The fourth importance of effective organization of information is that material that is organized in a logical and meaningful fashion is more readily used and applied than disorganized materials. The fifth importance of effective organization of information is that people will maximize the opportunity for audience to receive an accurate message. 

After we learnt the importance of organized information, our lecturer explained to us some strategies that can help us to organize the information. The first strategy is Organization by Category or Concept. In this strategy, I learnt that separate ideas which combine to produce any concept must be understood individually to make a sense before synthesis them. Moreover, the organization by concept also is effective when making a case to support premise. In addition to that, the organization by concept uses analysis of concept by breaking it down into the elements that form the central ideas. Then, our lecturer gave an example on how we use this strategy.

The second strategy that we learnt is chronological organization. The meaning of chronological organization is organization according to time which can be used effectively when we have sequence events that influence an outcome. Usually, the information that organized chronologically involves transitions from one phrase to another. The example of this strategy is how the people discover and improve the computer through several times.

The third strategy that I learnt is hierarchical organization. This strategy is usually used when the information is conveyed in a specific order. It can be from the most important to the least important.  It can also be from the least complex to the most complex. Then, the lecturer gave us an example. She mentioned, the IT student who is describing the process of diagnosing a computer problem always starts from the easy part such as looking to the cable of the computer to the complex part such as examining the problem.

The fourth strategy that I learnt is alphabetical organization. Therefore, the lecturer explained the presenting the information alphabetically does not imply any type of order or characteristics. The examples of using this strategy are dictionaries.

After that, our lecturer explained to us organization the graphics for presentation. In presentation, the graphics, tables, figures, and charts must be in appropriate ways to help the reader understand and follow the presenter easily. Then, the power point presentation should be very clear and easy to read by choosing the appropriate colors and the font sizes should be between 28 to48.  The main points should be larger  and we should avoid unclear abbreviation and sentences. Also the graphs and the pictures should be relative to the topic and make a sense.

At the end of this topic, our lecturer explained the differences between summarizing and synthesizing. She said that Keene explained the differences by defining both of them as summarizing is identifying key points and organizing thoughts, a listing of the parts. Keene highlighted that summarizing usually occurs at the end. Nonetheless, Keene declared that synthesizing is the creation of a whole.  It goes on throughout the process of reading—not just at the end.  It is bringing together different ideas and facts and weaving them together into a tapestry, something much larger than all the threads. In addition to that, our lecture end the topic with Harvey quotation as he stated, “Summarizing is part of synthesis. You can’t synthesize if you don’t know how to summarize.  Summarizing is the act of briefly presenting the main point.  When teaching summary, teachers should encourage readers to retell information by including important ideas but not telling too much.”

 In fact, this topic is very important and very useful in our daily life. Therefore, I hope that you learnt something good as I learnt from this topic.

Thanks

Topic-4:Citation

 Salaaaaaaaaaaaam

This topic was very useful and interesting for me. It focuses more in the fourth step of big6 which is use of information. This topic taught me how to avoid plagiarism by using citation and document the sources. Further, our lecturer explained to us how to do citation in both in the text references and end the text references. Therefore, I learnt that learn how to do citation is very important. In fact, our lecturer told us that there are several styles to do citation. Nonetheless, in this course we only studied the APA style which refers to American Psychological Association. This style has some rules needed to apply so it also has guidance for publication. In addition to that, APA style has some editions from first until the last version of it. Actually, our lecturer explained the 6^th edition of APA which the last edition.

After we learnt the basic idea of this topic, our lecturer started to teach us the basic rules of APA style. Therefore, we learn first the rules of the author. The first rule of the author is when we have a name with surname we write the surname first and then we write the initial of the other names (first and middle names). For example: (Isaac Robinson)   so to make citation we write (Robinson, I.). Moreover, for Muslim names that do not have surname and Malaysian names, we write the whole name. Further, if we have more than one name, we write the first name as the previous rules and then we write & the second name. For example: (Isaac Robison and Mohammed Ali). This can be written as (Robinson, I., & Mohammed Ali). Further, when we have more than six authors we use (et al). In addition to that, we learned that some name started with the surname such as Chinese name. 

Then, we learnt about the rules of title. In fact, the first litter of the title and the first litter of the subtitle after the colon or pronouns should only capitalize and the whole. For example, (Information Skills) will be Information skills. Another example is (Children welfare in Malaysia) will be Children welfare in Malaysia.  The second rule is underline or italic the title of books, title of Journal, title of Magazines, and title of newspaper. After that, I learnt that references should be put in alphabetical orders without using any number list and we should indent the subsequent line about one-half inch. I also learnt who to use the punctuation and their usage. You can see this example on how the references are arranged alphabetically and indent the subsequent lines (5 spaces).

Adams, C. M. (2006). The consequences of witnessing family violence on children and implications for family counselors. The Family Journal, 14, 334-341.

Day, C., Hibbert, P., & Cadman, S. (2008). A literature review into children abused and/or neglected prior custody. Youth Justice Board, 1-69.

Escobar-Chaves, S. L., & Anderson, C. A. (2008). Media and risky behaviours. Children and Electronic Media, 18, 147-180.

Actually, I learnt that each source has its own rules to write its references. First, I learnt how to write the references of books. Therefore, I learnt that information needed to reference the book is Author’s name, the book title, year of publication, and the Publisher’s location and name. it can be written as this rule.      

Author. (YEAR). TITLE. Place of Publication: Publisher.  

If we have one or two to three authors, we have to list all authors and use (&) between the second and the third authors. Nonetheless, if we have more than six authors the format will be

First author until sixth author, et al. (Year). Title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Moreover, if we have more than one edition so the format will be

Author. (Year). Title of book (Edition.). Place of Publication: Publisher.

 Sometimes, we will not find authors but instead we will find organization or cooperate bodies as authors. Other times, we may found editors and no authors so the format will be

Editor. (Ed./Eds.). (Year). Title. Place of publication : Publisher.

In addition to that, if we have author and editor at the same time, the format will be

Author, A. (Date). Title of book. Editor name (Ed.). Place of Publication: Publisher.

Moreover, if the book does not have author so the format will be

Title . (Year). Place of Publication : Publisher.

Furthermore, when we have a section or chapter in a book the format will be

Author, A. (Date). Title of chapter. In Editor name (Ed.), Title of book (page 
               number.). Place of Publication: Publisher.    

     

After that, our lecturer gave us some exercises to observe our understanding and correct us.

Second, we learnt how to write reference list about electronic documents or articles. The information needed to write the format is Author’s name Date of publication, Title of web page, Retrieve date, and Internet Address (URL) or DOI. Therefore, the format of an article with no DOI is

Author. (Year). Title of the article. Retrieved  from URL address

Moreover, if we have DOI so the format will be

 Author. (Date of publication). Title of article. doi:0000000/000000000000 or http:// 
               dx.doi.org/10.0000/0000

Furthermore, if we have online lecturer note or presentation slides, the format will be

Author. (Year). Title of the article.[Format].  Retrieved from URL address

Then, the lecturer gave us some exercises and corrected our mistakes in the class by giving us the ideal answers.

Third, we learnt how to write references list about periodical articles. Periodical articles are Newspapers, Magazines, and journals. The information needed to write references list about articles in newspapers or Magazines is Author’s name date of publication, title of article, name of the periodical, and page Number. Therefore the format for Magazine article will be

Author, A. (Year, Month Day). Title of Article. Title of Magazine, volume, page

               number(s).

Moreover, the format for Newspaper article will be

Writer of the article. (Year, month day). Title of article. Title of newspaper, page.

On the other hand, the format for the journals is

Writer of the article. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume (issue/no.),

               page.

In addition to that, the format of online journals without DOI is

Author of article. (Year). Title of the article. Name of the Journal, Volume (issue /
               no), page number. Retrieved from web address

Nonetheless, the format for journal articles with DOI is

Author. (Year). Title of the article. Name of the Journal, Volume (issue / no), page.  
              doi:10.1037/0278-6133.24  
         

 

Fourth, we learnt how to write references list for articles from references materials such as dictionaries and encyclopedia. The format for dictionaries is

Editor. (Ed.). (Year). Name of Dictionary (Edition, Volume, page

              no). Place publication: Publisher.

Further, the format for encyclopaedia is

Author name. (Year). Name of Article. Editor name, Name of Encyclopedia (Edition, Volume,   Page   Numbers). Place Publication: Publisher.

If there is no author, so it will be

Editor name. (Year). Name of Encyclopedia (Edition, Volume.). Place Publication:
            Publisher.

At the end of this section, our lecturer gave us lots of exercises and took us to the library to practise with real book.

In the second section, our lecturer explained to us the second type of citation which is in-text citation. She repeated saying that any citation appears in two places. The first place at the end citation as the first section. The second place is called in-text citation. The in-text citation gives the reader to follow and locate the information that the author take the information from. For  example,  Schlatter (2000) explained that mistreated children who experienced physical abuse are more anxious to their peers in school than non-maltreated children.

So, the reference will be

Schlatter, A. K. (2000). Parental Aggression and Adolescent Peer Relationships.Virginia: Department of Psychology, 1-72.

The use of in-text citation is to sammarise or parphrase or direct qoute someone else work. The use of in-text citation is very important since it can help to suuport your idea and it can highlight the other people ponts of view. For direct qoutation, it is necessary to write the author name, the date of publication, and page numper. However, if it is more than forty words then Indent the quotation.

Moreover, paraphrsing and summarizing are more similar where both need to discribe in same meaning but with different sentences. For paraphrasing and summarising, we do not put the the page numbers or question mark in the in-text citation. In the in-text citation, we only use the last name of the author. In in-text citation we can use signal phrase to introduce other people works. The common signal phrase are claim, argued, explined, suggest, stated, declared…etc.

In-text citations are the parenthetical pieces of information that appear usually at the end of a quote, paraphrase, or summary. However, they sometimes appear before the citation.  In the in-text citation we only write the author surname and the year of publication. However, if we have direct citation we must add the page numbers. In addition to that, for every in-text citation, there must be end citation (refernces).

For in-text citation by one author it can be as these examples below

·         At the end of qoutation or parphrasing such as ( Al-Fakih, 2013, p.15)

·         In 2013, Al-Fakih reported that… (p.15)

·         Al-Fakih (2013) tells us that…(p.15)

·         According to Al-Fakih (2013), “…” (p.15)

For the in-text citation by multipe authors. If we have two authors it should be as

·         According to Al-Fakih and Robinson (2013), “…” (p.15)

·         “…” ( Al-Fakih & Robinson, 2013, p. 15)

For in-text citation with three to five authors, Identify all authors in the signal phrase or the parentheses the first time you cite the source. However, if you use this citation again you should inclode only the surname for the first name and then followed by et al. Furthermore, when we have six or more authors only inclode the first surname and followed by et al from the first time. In addition to that, when we have groups as authors, first citation we have to mention the full name and then for the subsequent citations, we  can use the abbrevited for the group or th organization. Moreover, when we have work with no identified authors, we cite the text with the first few words of the title. We also can use double quotation marks around the title of an article, a chapter or a web page and italicize the title of a periodical, a book, a brochure or a report.

All in all, this topic is a very useful and interesting topic. To know more about it we need to prctice lots of sources to understand it more.

Thanks

Topic-3: Search tools & Search strategies

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This topic was very helpful and useful to me. The aim of this topic is to know appropriate tools and search strategies to find information. In the first session of this topic, I learnt that search tools mean Utilities available on the Internet to help user find information among the millions of documents. I also learnt that search tools are categorized into three types which are Library Catalogue, Internet Directories, Search Engines, and Database. Moreover, I learnt that search tools find information in different ways. 

The first category of search tools that I learnt is library catalogue. Library catalog is a systematic listing of the books and materials in a library with descriptive information of the materials. Therefore, I learnt that libraries organize and record their materials through library catalogues. The traditional way of finding resources in the library was a card or a book catalogue. Information on the traditional catalog record included the call numbers, author, title, edition, publisher and brief description of the item. However, the modern libraries use Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). OPAC provides us with details about the books, audiovisuals, and other materials that can be found in library. Understand the OPAC can help us to locate the materials in the library easily. OPAC contains a record for each book, audiovisual and periodical and other collection. The catalogs of other libraries contain the same types of information about items in their collections.

After that, I learnt about the OPAC in my university (AiU). AiU OPAC contains over 167,000 bibliographic records among with various formats. The AiU OPAC is provided by Virginia Tech Library Systems (VTLS). VTLS is a leading global company providing library automation software and services mostly to government and university customers. VTLS integrates with many of the most popular specialized library software and content solutions such as Syndetics content enrichment, OverDrive e-books, Comprise PC reservation and print management, iTiva automated telephone notification, and Virtua which is a full-function library management system, providing management of circulation, cataloging, serials, acquisitions, course reserves and more. All these are fully functioning and allow librarians to access any function at any time according to their library-assigned permissions. The AiU OPAC is called CHAMO which is one of the new features provided by VTLS. CHAMO lets users create personal lists, tag, enter comments or reviews and link to social sites like Facebook and PC or mobile device. It encourages users to interact with the library and with each other by allowing them to share what they have found on Facebook, Twitter and many other social media sites. It also extends the reach and support a wide variety of mobile devices access. In addition to that, AiU OPAC has two criteria to search which are general and advance search. A general search will return results based on a search for the word that you entered in the Author, Title, or Subjects fields. However, the advance search can be used to provide a great degree of specificity by to select and search a category such as any Field, Author, Title, Subject, ISBN, ISSN, LCCN, UPC and Control Number. 

The second category of search tools is internet. The internet is a global system interconnected networks that uses the standard internet protocol to serve billions of user. In fact, the most common strategies to find information on the Web are Search Engines and Subject Directories. Internet search engines are special tools on the Web that are designed to help people find information stored on other sites. They are large databases that help user to any interest sites. Serach engines are either individual search engines such as Google or Metasearch engines such as dogpile. On the other hand, Subject directories in general are smaller and selective than search engines. They use categories to focus the search, and their sites are arranged by categories, not just by keywords. Furthermore, subject directories are organized by humans.

The third category of search tools is online database. Online databases are collections of computerized information or data such as articles, books, graphics and multimedia that can be searched to find information. Online databases provide access to resources across a wide range of topic and subject areas such as the arts and genealogy. AiU use 24x7 and Ebray which are types of online databases. Moreover, online databases can provide access to the entire article or summary of the article. Database content may often be searched by: Keywords, Title, Author, or Subject. It also provides citation such as title, author, publisher, and place of publication.   

In the second session of this topic, I learnt basics about search strategies. First I learnt that search strategy is the approach and structured or organization of terms used to search a database or internet. These strategies can help the user find accurate results and specific information. In this lesson, I learnt how to use four strategies to find the information. The first strategy is searching with keyword by use synonyms of the keyword in searching and also combines keywords and synonym together. For example, if you want to search about Information Literacy you can use the synonyms of it such as information skills. 

 The second strategy is Boolean Searching. This strategy is to limit, broaden, or define the search by using Boolean operators which are: And (to limit the search), OR (to broad the search), and Not (to exclude unwanted terms).

The third strategy is Truncation and Wildcards. Truncation and wildcards broaden your search capabilities by allowing you to retrieve multiple spellings of a root word or word stem, such as singular and plural forms. Moreover, A wildcard AND Truncation is a special character, such as an asterisk (*), question mark (?), or pound sign (#), that replaces one or more letters in a word. The use of Truncation is to expand the search to locate all words beginning with the same root. However, A Wildcard is used in the middle of a word to match with the term. 

The fourth strategy is Phrase Searching which means searching for two or more words as an exact phrase. To use this strategy you need use brackets ( ) or inverted commas “ “. At the end this topic, I hope that this information can help you as it help me a lot.

Thanks