Week 3

Week 3 was filled with tons of valuable information that I need to know in my college career. On Tuesday, Amanda taught us about scholarly articles. First, she showed us two videos that clarified and summarized what we learned the week before. She persuaded to broaden that topic in class that day. She went on to say that scholarly articles should be used as much as possible when getting research for class. They are usually published by a university and are peer reviewed. Consequently, information is very correct, researched, and precise. Amanda even showed us an example of a book that would be scholarly. She presented us with two books that seemed very similar, both about the science of yoga. One book was colorful and had a simple title. The other one had a gray bland color with a "sophisticated" title. Even though the first book looks very appealing to the eye and easy to read, the bland or "boring" book is a much better source. It is longer and has a wide variety of topics in the table of contents where as the other only had a few sections and did not contain much.  It is key to know what source to use so information you are presenting is not false or inaccurate. On Thursday, Bonnie talked to the class about research ethics, plagiarism, and copyright. She began to tell us about patents. When showing us her thermos, she said that a patent was put on the idea of that product so that way, the idea is reserved from anyone else using it. It gives credit to the creator. Patents are kind of like trademarks. Trademarks are used on pictures or logos to acknowledge ownership. She said that a girl in a class she used to teach once tried to use a picture of a Disney character on her website. Disney found out and wanted to sue her by law! It's crazy to think that so much trouble can come from a simple picture on a website. It is crucial to contact the author for permission because those things are taken very seriously. Bonnie finished the class talking about the importance of citation. Citation is probably the most vital idea to remember in research. Anything found from a source, whether it's a book or website, needs to be cited and credited. If not, it seems that the information provided is original. It is not right to take other's ideas.  I know I would not like it if someone copied me so respect should be given in all times. Even if ideas are summarized, they need to be cited. Some good ways of citing are to use Academic Search Complete and other websites Bonnie said in class. They make citing so much easier and less of a worry. Overall, this week I learned good ways to cite information and where to get my information from.