Friday, March 22, 2019

Cape Cod Tour Guide Research Guide!

So, you need to make a tour guide presentation...

BRAINSTORM KEYWORDS AND RESOURCES

What do you already know about your site?
(This is brainstorming keywords)
  • Where is it? 
    • Think in generals and specifics:  City/Town/Site Name <--> Cape Cod <--> Massachusetts <--> Northeastern United States
  • What are the qualities of the site? 
    • Historic event?
    • Geologic feature?
    • Plant? Animal? Famous Person?
  • Make a list of your keywords on your notes document or a separate piece of paper. Remember, you can always add to this list or cross off keywords that are not helpful.
Think about your location type...
  • What type of resource will have the information that you want?
    • Tour guide? Historical? Scientific?
  • What type of author are you hoping to find? How do you evaluate the information on each?
    • Official location
    • Government
    • For-profit tour company
    • Conservation or environmental protection agency
    • Private person's personal website
    • Expert scientist
    • Expert historian

USE YOUR KEYWORDS, EVALUATE YOUR SOURCE AND EXTRACT YOUR INFORMATION

Find a source of information:

  • Be efficient and effective and start with these provided resources!
  • Go to your source and look for your keywords in the index, on the page (ctrl/cmnd-F)
  • If you are using a search engine:
    • Do you want to use multiple words?
    • What order?
    • Tweak your keywords:  more general? more specific? synonyms? are you using the words an expert would use?
    • Remember:  don't use sentences! Think about how the page you want to find would be written

Is this really a good source?

If it answers your question and has your information, evaluate the source to make sure that it is good (accurate, etc.) 

Remember Rr/aAPT -- 
  1. READABILITY:  If you can't understand the source, you can't take notes and put it into your own words! STOP and pick another source -- this isn't a bad thing. Remember -- it might be written for college students!
  2. RESPONSE/ANSWER:  Make sure it answers your question. If it doesn't, maybe you can be empathetic and share it with another group.
  3. AUTHOR:  Evaluate the author -- why is this person or organization an expert that you can trust?
  4. PURPOSE:  What is the purpose of the source? Does it have an opinion? Want you to do something? 
  5. TIME:  When was it updated? Does it say when it was updated? (Does it matter?)

Making notes:  

  • Add your source to your source list BEFORE you start making notes!
  • Use the ToC, index, and ctrl/cmnd-F to find the exact places in the source that have your information.
  • Write down or type up the important facts in your own words -- remember you do not need compete sentences!