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In response to Becca Price, Kent Christensen notes that for research
~|>search engines
~|>and the Internet
~|>are the method used today. Much less all the time is the
~|>long document with
~|>the nicely formatted page numbering and page headers and
~|>footers.
Not too long ago, a poster sweepingly generalized about the current
generation being the first to learn to write online. Here is another
similarly broad statement. Of course conscientious research now involves
search engines and the Internet, but this is not *the* method
(suggesting the only one) used today; a check of print sources is often
necessary as well. Whenever anyone asks this list for resources, books
are usually listed in addition to web sites. I doubt that will change
any time soon.
As for the decline of the long document, I've noticed that the most
useful web sites use design features to help me locate information and
figure out where I am within a site. It's not "nicely formatted page
numbering..." but the principle of guiding the reader still applies.
Kent also speculates,
~|>
~Could
~|>help explain some reluctance to learn how to write research
~|>papers.
In the spring semester of 1979, as a new graduate teaching assistant, I
taught my first composition class requiring a research paper; I'm
teaching such a class right now. In those 21 <sigh!> years my students
have always been reluctant to learn to write research papers. So before
the widespread use of Internet research, there must have been some other
reason :)
And he asks,
~|>Is
~|>"ability to use a search engine" the new meaning of "ability to think
~|>critically?"
Lord have mercy, let's hope not, any more than the former meaning was
"ability to look things up in an encyclopedia." Any responsible
instruction on using the Web for research includes admonitions to
examine sites critically in order to determine which ones will be
credible or useful. (Perhaps that's what Kent meant by "ability to use a
search engine," rather than simply the mechanics of typing in search
terms, etc.)
Sarah Bane
Day job: Technical Writer, SpectrumRetail Corporation
--Parent company to the ProphetLine family of retail technology
products---
Night job: Associate Instructor, Westark College
sarah -dot- bane -at- spectrumretail -dot- com
sbane -at- westark -dot- edu
Opinions expressed are my own and not endorsed by SpectrumRetail or by
Westark.
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