Prac 10: EIR Journey

My favourite metaphor is "not to judge a book by its cover".

In the past similar to the metaphor, my thinking towards research was that it does not matter. During the process of searching for relevant research materials, I did not pay much attention to the search query and just depended solely on the keywords of my research topic. I also did my research for assignments blindly on the Internet by taking the information by face value, the most I did for evaluation was just to check the currency of the materials to make sure that the information provided was recent.

However after going through this subject, I learnt that research is extremely important and that it requires techniques to allow for effective research. Other than using keywords in the search query, others such as keyword variations, Boolean operators (AND, OR, AND NOT), power search, stem (*) and "Advanced Search" features are important things to consider. This is because they can help the research process become more efficient and effective such as limiting and narrowing down results to ones that are most relevant or expanding the search area if too little results are provided. As for evaluation, others such as evaluating the source's purpose, coverage and authority are also important. This is to ensure that the information provided is provided by sources which have the expertise pertaining to that particular subject and that the authors are qualified to post the information.

After the EIR journey, I have understood the importance of research and not to take in information at face value (not to judge a book by its cover). If it is done in a slipshod manner, it will affect the progress of the rest of the work such as the need to spend more time to research again or resume research. This takes away time needed for the actual work itself which then leads to having insufficient time.