研究生英语第四章翻译.doc

Everyone finds that many of the ideas which he desired to retain have slipped irretrievably away. The Idler, NO. 72The ability to find information is a useful skill, but it will not guarantee a successful research paper. It is only a first step. You must also be able to evaluate your sources, read efficiently, select material supporting your thesis, and take usable notes.Evaluating Sources You will need to evaluate your sources on two levels. First, is the information reliable? Second, how useful will a source be for your own paper? Be sure to think seriously about both questions. Information may be accurate without being especially useful, and unreliable information may be useful for showing problems associated with certain points of view. For many students the first question may be especially daunting if they have never been asked to question what they read. Perhaps because they have been taught to rely so heavily on textbooks, some students feel excessive reverence for everything they see in print. Yet publication does not make something reported as a fact true or an opinion valid. Composing a research paper provides a good opportunity to learn how to judge the reliability of sources and to extract relevant material from them. Only a specialist can judge the reliability of a source authoritatively, but considering the following points can help you determine whether a source is likely to be (1) trustworthy and (2) relevant to your research project.Criteria for Evaluating Internet Sources Evaluating information you find on the Internet is crucial, but you can follow the same principles you would use to assess information in any other area of your life. You probably would not buy a car from a stranger without making some investigations, and the same should be true of “buying” what you find on the Internet (or any other source). 1. Author. If an author is named, that is the place to begin. Remember that anyone with access to the technology can become an Internet author. Consequently, determining the authors credentials may be more difficult and less conclusive than when you are working with a print source. However, you may follow the same strategies you would use when working with a book or article. That is, if youre just beginning to learn about a topic, you might consult a faculty member, librarian, or some specialist in that field. You may also consult reference works like Whos Who. The number of times an author is cited in Citation Index (see pages 6263) is a good indication or his or her significance. 2. Domain. A second means of evaluating information is to identify the host of the site where the document appears by looking at the domain of the site, identified by the last three letters of the home page address. It might be a postsecondary educational institution (.edu), a U.S. government agency (.gov), a nonprofit organization (.org), or a commercial organization (.com or .biz). Recognizing the domain can help you identify the purpose of the site and the nature of the organization sponsoring it. 3. Purpose. Probably the single most important factor to consider in evaluating an Internet document is its purpose. Broadly speaking, most Internet sites are intended to sell, to persuade, or to inform. While a site is likely to include elements of all three approaches, one purpose usually outweighs the others. That purpose will, of course, have a profound effect on the kind of information presented and the way it is presented. Keep the purpose of the site in mind as you consider the remaining criteria. 4. Sponsoring organization. While recognizing the publisher of a book or journal can be helpful in evaluating that source, it is crucial in evaluating sources you find on the Internet. For example, if you are researching the topic of abortion, knowing whether a page you have found has been posted by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League or by the National Right to Life Committee is essential in evaluating the information you find. Likewise, if you are investigating automobile safety, you would probably find significant differences in the way the Web site of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports on a particular vehicle and the way the manufacturers site describes it. It is not always obvious just what organization is sponsoring a page, especially if you have landed on that page as part of a search for a term. If that is the case, look for a link that will take you to the main page of the document, where you are likeliest to find information about the sponsoring organization. Does the site provide information that will allow you to find out more about the sponsoring organization? If you are not familiar with that organization, take a few minutes to investigate it. Remember, too, that working back to the domain name in the URL of a specific document will take you to the organizations home page:Specific Document: /abortion/pba/PBAall110403.html Home Page: /In this illustration, the National Right to Life Committee is the organization posting the specific document, and the home page provides a good deal of information about the organization. 5. Tone. Does the site advocate a particular point of view? Does it mention opposing views? How fairly does it represent those views? Is the tone of the source fair, balanced, and objective? 6. Accuracy. Is the information provided accurate? Can you verify information in a second source? Does the site document the information it provides? 7. Timeliness. Is the information up to date? When was it first posted? When was it updated? Some Web pages will provide this information very clearly, but it is often not the case. In many browsers, you can find this information by pulling down the View menu and looking for information about the page. 8. Links to other resources. Just as bibliographies and notes in print sources can provide useful leads for further research, Web pages can often take you to additional valuable resources. Be careful, though, to keep track of your “location” on the Internet. It is easy to go to a completely different Web site without being aware of it. Each change of site requires that you evaluate the new site just as carefully as you did the previous one. 9. Index. Just as you can use an index or table of contents to see if a book is relevant to your topic, you can use the search function to locate key terms in a long document. For instance, an Internet search for information about connections between Eugene ONeills play The Emperor Jones and the historical figure Marcus Garvey will probably lead you to an essay called “Marcus Garvey: Life & Lessons” in The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Project at UCLA (/africa/mgpp/lifeintr.asp).Using the “search” or “find” function will let you find the words Emperor Jones and determine quickly whether this site will be useful for your project. In evaluating information you find in books and articles, follow the same principles just discussed, although some features will differ for print sources. Criteria for Evaluating Print Sources 1. Author. Because books and journal articles usually undergo some sort of review before they are published, some screening has been done already. However, appearance in print does not guarantee a writers reliability. Writers and their views are sometimes described in reviews, so you should investigate all authors, whether their work is in print or online. 2. Publisher. As you carry out your research, you will come to recognize names of respected publishers. Generally, you can assume that the books they publish are trustworthy. In the same way, the reputation of a periodical may attest to the reliability of an article. Most scholarly associations and most universities publish at least one journal. Brief evaluations of many journals can be found in Magazines for Libraries, 16th ed. (New York: Bowker, 2007), edited by Cheryl LaGuardia, Bill Katz, and Linda Sternberg Katz. This reference work lists periodicals by subject and evaluates each one. If you are in doubt regarding a journal, consult a faculty member or a librarian. Needless to say, you should avoid or use with caution information from a tabloid purchased in a supermarket. 3. Publication date. The copyright year on the reverse of the title page will tell you how recent a book is. This is especially important with social and scientific subjects. An article on computer technology or a book on the British royal family written before 1995 would not be very useful. A biography of Woodrow Wilson or a description of the Brooklyn Bridge, on the other hand, probably would not suffer so much from the passage of time. 4. Documentation. An authors notes and bibliography are an indication but not proof of reliability. In addition, the bibliography and the notes may direct you to other sources.5. Reviews. It may be helpful to examine reviews of a book. Consult Book Review Digest or Book Review Index (see page 62) to locate reviews. Sometimes a review itself can be a valuablesource. 6. Title. The full title of a book or an article usually indicates its content and purpose and thus its relevance. Someone doing research on medical treatment during the Civil War might well overlook Microbes and Minie Balls by Frank R. Freemon if he or she did not take note of the subtitle: An Annotated Bibliography of Civil War Medicine. 7. Preface. Some readers automatically skip over introductory material, but an authors preface may be a valuable overview of the content and purpose of the book. 8. Table of contents. The chapter titles indicate the major topics treated in a book. 9. Index. The alphabetical listing of topics covered in a book can help you determine whether that source will be useful. You could make an alphabetical list of relevant persons, places, and events (inverting proper names as they would appear in an index), then quickly check the indexes in biographies and histories, looking for any of your key items. If you are writing about a literary work, be sure to determine the indexing system being used. Some indexes list each work separately, and some list all works under the authors name. 10. Abstract. Many scholarly journals preface each article with a brief summary of its content. Collections of abstracts are also available in print and electronic form. 11. Illustrations. Paging through a book will show you whether there are maps, diagrams, or graphs that might be useful. 12. Glossary. A technical book may include a useful list of terms with brief definitions. 每个人都发现了许多的想法，他希望保持了不可挽回地离开。托辊，72号寻找信息的能力是一个有用的技能，但是它不能保证一个成功的研究。这只是第一步。你也必须能够评估你的资源，进行有效阅读材料的选择，支持你的论文，并可用笔记。评价的来源需要在两个层面上评估你的来源。首先，是信息可靠吗？第二，如何将一个源是你自己的纸吗？一定要认真思考这两个问题。没有特别有用的信息可能是准确的，和不可靠的信息可以显示在某些观点相关的问题是有用的。对许多学生的第一个问题也许是特别令人畏缩如果他们从来没有被问到的问题他们读到的东西。也许是因为他们已经学会依赖教材，有些学生感到过分的尊敬在打印他们所看到的一切。然而，发布不做报道，作为一个事实或意见的有效。撰写研究论文提供了一个很好的机会去学习如何判断消息来源的可靠性，从中提取相关的材料。只有专家能判断一个来源的可靠性的权威，但考虑到以下几点可以帮助你确定是否可能是一个值得信赖的来源（1），（2）你的研究项目有关的。评估网络资源标准评估你在网上找到的信息是至关重要的，但你可以遵循同样的原则，你将用以评估在你生活的任何其他方面的信息。你可能不会买一辆车从一个陌生人不做一些调查，和同样应该是“购买”你在互联网上找到真正的（或任何其他来源）。1。作者。如果一个作者的名字，这是开始的地方。记得访问技术，任何人都可以成为互联网的作者。因此，确定作者的证书可能更难定论的时候比你一个打印源工作。然而，你可以遵循同样的策略，你会用一本书或文章时工作。那就是，如果你是刚开始学习一个主题，你可以请教一个教员，图书管理员，或在该领域的一些专家。你还可以查阅参考作品像是谁的谁。一个时代的作者人数在引文索引引用（见62页63）是一个很好的指示或他或她的意义。2。域。第二评价信息的手段是识别的文件是通过看站点的域名网站的主机，通过主页地址的最后三个字母识别。它可能是一个高等教育机构（。教育），一个美国政府机构（。gov），一个非营利组织（。org），或一个商业组织（。COM或。”）。识别域可以帮助你识别的网站和组织赞助这大自然的目的。3。目的。可能最重要的因素，在评估一个互联网文件考虑的是它的目的。从广义上讲，大多数网站的目的是销售，说服，或通知。当一个站点可能包含的所有三种元素，一个目的通常比别人。目的将，当然，对提交的信息和提出那种方式产生深远的影响。要时刻记住网站的目的为你考虑其它的标准。4。主办机构。在承认书或杂志出版商可以评估源是有帮助的，它在评价的来源，你在网上找到是至关重要的。例如，如果你正在研究流产的话题，知道一个页面是否你发现已通过国家堕胎和生育权行动联盟和这个国家生存权利委员会张贴是必不可少的评价你找到的信息。同样的，如果你对汽车的安全性，您可能会发现的方式，在一个特定的车辆和路上的制造商的网站描述美国国家公路交通安全管理局的报告网站的显着差异。它并不总是显而易见的就是组织赞助的一个网页，特别是如果你已经登陆页面上为一项搜索部分。如果是这样的话，找一个链接将带您到文档的首页，你在哪里最有可能找到赞助组织信息。这个网站提供的信息，将让你了解更多关于赞助的组织？如果你不熟悉的组织，需要几分钟的时间来了解它。记住，太，到域名的一个特定的文档的URL的工作会把你带到组织的主页：特定的文件：/abortion/pba/pbaall110403.html主页：/在这个例子中，这个国家生存权利委员会组织发布了特定的文件，和主页提供了大量的有关组织的信息。5。音。现场是否提倡一种特定的观点？它提反对意见？如何公平是这些观点吗？源的公平，音调平衡，和目的？6。精度。提供的信息是准确的？你可以验证在第二源信息？该网站的文件提供的信息吗？7。及时性。是信息更新吗？它是什么时候第一次公布？它是什么时候更新？一些网站会提供这样的信息很清楚，但它往往不是这样的。在许多浏览器，你可以通过下拉菜单的视图和寻找有关页面信息查找此信息。8。其他资源的链接。正如在打印来源的书目和债券可以为进一步的研究提供有