Finding, Evaluating, and Processing Information

1. Supporting your messages with solid research
--- make sure your reporting, analysis, and recommendations are supported by solid research

2. Planning your research
--- no planning wastes time and makes unsatisfactory results
- Maintaining ethics and etiquette in your research
--- take precautions to avoid ethical lapses and problems. Remember:
------ don’t force a specific outcome
------ respect privacy of participants
------ document sources and give credit
------ respect intellectual property and digital rights of sources
------ don’t extract more that sources provide
------ don’t misrepresent with your results
- Familiarizing yourself with the subject
--- familiarize yourself with a new subject before you start research
--- develop a problem statement: defines the problem or purpose of research- guides investigation
- Identifying information gaps
--- focus research by identifying most important gaps in information
- Prioritizing Research Needs
--- not enough time or money to answer every question, setting priorities is important

This site concentrates on advice in planning your research:
http://managementhelp.org/research/planning.htm

3. Locating Data and Information
---secondary research: research done previously for another purpose
---primary research: research done specifically for the current project
- Evaluating Sources
--- know your sources to avoid embarrassing and damaging mistakes
--- To evaluate, ask some questions:
------ 1. Does the source have a reputation for honesty and reliability?
------2. Is the source biased?
------3. What is the purpose of the material?
------4. Where did the source get its information? Is the author credible?
------5. Is the material current? And complete?
------6. Are all the claims supported by evidence?
- Conducting secondary research
--- conduct secondary research first
--- Finding information at the Library
------ offer information and resources that you cannot find anywhere else=> including research labs
------ can locate info in: newspapers, business books, directories, almanacs, general publications, and electronic databases
--- Finding information Online
------ most information online has not been subjected to offline publishing
------ start with a reliable web directory
------ gather information from the company websites, but keep in mind they are biased
------ understanding search engines, web directories, and databases
------search engines: identify individual webpages that contain specific words from your search
------ powerful but have limits
------ specialized search engines help reach hidden information
------web directories: have human editors to evaluate and select websites
------metacrawlers: save time by using multiple search engines
------ online databases: give access to most important resources that search engines can’t reach=> Make sure you are aware of how the operate so you don’t get unpredictable results
------ use research tools effectively: read instructions, pay attention to details, review search and display options carefully, try term variations, adjust the scope of your search
------ take advantage of innovative research technology: latest technology includes desktop and enterprise search engines, research and content managers, social bookmarking sites, and newsfeeds
- Documenting your sources
--- proper documentation is an ethical responsibility and an important resource
--- copywrite protections may prevent your form using some materials without permission
This is a college site that tells us the most important reasons to document our sources:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/review_essay/com2b4.cfm

- Conducting Primary Research
---Conducting Surveys
------ must be based on a sample of a population of interests
------ provide clear instructions to prevent mistakes in answers
------ test your survey before using it
------ online surveys are quick and inexpensive but require some planning
--- Conducting interviews
------ easy to conduct but require planning for useful results
------ use both open ended, closed questions, and focus groups
------ face to face interviews give opportunity to gage nonverbal responses



4. Processing Data and Information
---after collecting research, next step is to convert to useable info
-Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
---quoting: reproducing the content and indicating who created it initially
---paraphrasing: expressing someone else’s ideas in your own words
---summarizing: distills content into fewer words
- Analyzing your data
---Gaining Insights
------mean: average
-----median: “middle of the road” or midpoint
------mode: number that occurs most often in a series
------trends: patterns that repeat over time
------causation: shows cause and effect relationships
------correlation: indicates simultaneous changes in 2 variations that may not necessarily be related
--- Guarding against mistakes and misinterpretations
------ errors that might have crept in during collection and processing data
------ avoid faulty comparisons, don’t push results beyond their limits, steer clear of misleading representations
This site gives examples of how to process and anaylze data:
http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/info_processing.htm


5. Applying your findings
- Summarizing your research
--- unbiased presentation of information regarding a particular topic, without attempts to draw conclusions or make recommendations
- Drawing Conclusions
--- a logical interpretation of research results
- Making recommendations
--- a suggested course of action
--- knowledge management systems keep organization and share research results
The following site is strategies for drawing conclusions:
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html


6. Managing information
--- knowledge management: (KM) a set of technologies, policies, and procedures that let colleagues capture and share information throughout an organization