Original Research

I have never done my own original research. Original research is different from library research since original research is based on information that you have collected from surveys, interviews and such. Library research can guide you in the direction of what kinds of questions to ask people in your research population, it can also show you what has already been researched so you know what might not have been researched before, thus starting a new topic for original research. Cons of library research: information might be outdated, might be biased based on sources. Pros of library research: hard work of finding the facts has already been done for you. Critical thinking skills required for both: reflection, reasoning, analysis, interpretation. The most important skill for library research is interpretation because you can gather information but you must be able to understand what you have gathered. While the most important for original research is analysis because you must analyze your findings in order to present actual and factual information based on your findings.

Statistical Information

I was able to find 2 sources that gave statistical information about the ex-incarcerated and they both gave sources of where their information came from but I didn't find much information about how it was actually collected and/or analyzed. I was assuming that the governemtn document would explain this since they are trying to convince us of issues being faced.

Finn, P. (1998, March). Successfull job placement for for ex-offenders. Retrieved from  https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/168102.pdf

Western, B. The impact of incarceration on wage mobility and inequality. Retrieved from  http://scholar.harvard.edu/brucewestern/files/western_asr.pdf

Checking In

As I am preparing for my semester research project, I think the presentation part is going to be the hard part. I haven't ever created my own slides so that might be a slight challenge for me. As far as getting information, I still have the last couple of sources to get information from but I am well on my way to the end of the road.

As far as other classes and everyday research, I have used some of the tools that we learned and have come up with some pretty good information.