7 Great Online Research Resources for Writers

7 Great Online Research Resources for Writers 7 Great Online Research Resources for Writers 7 Great Online Research Resources for Writers By Mark Nichol Doing research to strengthen a current story or article, or to get ideas for a new one? You can google all you want and hope for a productive return, but to engage in a focused search, try one of these mediated experiences instead: 1. Infoplease From current events to reference-desk resources to features about history, this site puts a remarkable array of information within reach. Guides to the nations of the world, timelines of political, social, and cultural developments, special quantitative and qualitative features like â€Å"The Worlds Most Corrupt Nations† and â€Å"Color Psychology,† and more cover just about anything you could think of. 2. The Internet Public Library Unlike the other reference centers on this list, the IPL is a portal to other Web sites, brimming with directories of links in topics like Arts Humanities. (Dictionary of Symbolism? Check. Ask Philosophers? Right. Legendary Lighthouses? We got your legendary lighthouses right here.) If you need background information on either fiction or nonfiction projects, stop by for a visit I just dare you to leave without a digressive click or ten. 3. The Library of Congress The online presence of the official repository of knowledge and lore of the United States is an indispensable resource not only for nonfiction writers seeking background information for topics but also for fiction authors seeking historical context for an existing project or inspiration for a new one. 4. Merriam-Webster Online The publishing world’s dictionary of record is at your fingertips online as well as in print, with a thesaurus and Spanish-English and medical compendia, to boot. The dictionary also includes refreshing can’t-we-all-just-get-along usage commentary. (That and which, as pronouns that introduce restrictive clauses, are interchangeable.) You’ll also find video tutorials on usage from dictionary staff, a Word of the Day feature, word games, and a variety of language-watch features. 5. Refdesk Refdesk.com, like Infoplease, is a clearinghouse for online research, with links to headline news and timeless information alike. You can easily get lost in its Daily Diversions directory, which includes links not only to humor, games, and trivia sites but also to more respectable resources like DailyWritingTips.com (whoo!). If you have a question, chances are you can find the answer on this site. 6. Snopes How do you verify that this self-described â€Å"definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation† is what it claims to be? Go to the site and find out. The fine folks at Snopes.com will set you straight about any one of hundreds of posts each with a prominent judgmental icon, and commentary to back it up about that one thing you think you remember you heard about that one thing. (For example: Posh comes from an acronym for â€Å"port out, starboard home† the ideal respective locations for accommodations on a luxury liner right? Cue the buzzer. Bogus.) TruthOrFiction.com is a similar site. 7. Wikipedia This user-generated online encyclopedia got a lot of flak a few years ago for some inaccurate information posted by someone with a grudge, but that was an isolated incident. Also, many sources warn against using Wikipedia as a primary source for research. That said, don’t hesitate to avail yourself of the wealth of information available on the site much of which is written by subject-matter experts in the field in question. Then click on one of the online sources linked in the footnotes, or take your search to one of the other sites in this list. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Grammar Test 1Writing the Century45 Idioms with "Roll"

Features of Quantitative Research Essays

Features of Quantitative Research Essays Features of Quantitative Research Essay Features of Quantitative Research Essay Quantitative research tends to be numerical or categorical. This type of research aims to make predictions, establish facts and test hypothesis that have already been stated, that is, aims to find evidence which supports or does not support on existing hypothesis. Quantitative research normally involves large numbers of respondents, typically a hundred or more, and obtains results that are representative of the total population. Therefore, it is a form of research method that is considerably appropriate for generalization of descriptions. There are several main types of approaches to quantitative research (show as following) and these techniques are widely used in many substantive fields to study and explain individual differences and patterns of relationships among variables. Correlational research aims to find out whether there is a relationship between two or more variables (Gay Airasian, 1999). In any case, if a relationship is found, then its degree is identified by a number between -1. 00 and +1. 00 and this number is known as a correlation coefficient. For instance, when one variable increases and the other also increases, then the correlation in this case would be positive. On the other hand, if a correlation is negative, that means, when one variable decreases, the other also decreases. Survey research targets to answer questions about current status of the subject of study. This usually involves studying attitudes, practices or concerns of certain group of people. (Gay Airasion, 1999).   Causal-comparative research aims to find a cause-effect relationship between two or more different programs, methods, or groups. : An example of this would be to find out if children watch violence programs on TV causes aggressive behaviours. The main advantage of quantitative research is the results are statistically reliable and the results are able to be projected to the population. It has high reliability as different researchers, using the same measurement system are likely to come up at the same measurement for same subjects This method is appropriate for measuring both attitudes and behaviours and therefore quantitative research method is one of the traditional research method that many psychologists used in their approach to research design. Differences in features in another basic type of research approach When talking about the features of quantitative research, people often mention another basic research method qualitative research as a comparison. In qualitative research, it involves emhasising meanings, experiences, descriptions and etc (Coolican, 1990). And it uses mainly non-numerical data such as observations and interviews, that is, it does not use numbers in its analysis. Data is usually in the form of words that have been recorded to represent observations. Also in contrast to quantitative research, qualitative research often requires small number of respondent. The reason of why mentioned the features of qualitative research method is because this would add up to the disadvantages of quantitative research method to explain why I think many psychologist has become dissatisfied with the more traditional quantitative approach to research design, despite it is the most common type of approach in many psychological research. Disadvantages of quantitative research As one of the reasons for using quantitative research is to find out whether a group of people shares certain characteristic in common, the disadvantage of this method is that the resulting theory usually unable to take account of the unique characteristics of individual cases. Another characteristic of results which generated from quantitative research is they tend to be very simple in comparison to qualitative research, which is generally rich in information with detailed descriptions such as interview transcripts, personal comments and audio recordings, the results obtained from quantitative research are generally reduced to a few numerical statistics and summarised in a few short statements. In this sense, depth of understanding in qualitative research is therefore considerably superficial. According to McCullough (1995), the primary disadvantages of quantitative research is that issues are only measurement if they are known prior to the beginning of the survey (and therefore, have been incorporated into the questionnaire) and quantitative research requires the advance formulation of specific hypothesis by Huysamen (1997). With this characteristic in place, quantitative research is therefore only appropriate when the issues to be tested are known. This research method would not be appropriate to use in situations such as an initial leaning phase or as a method to explore new ideas. One disadvantage of quantitative research is that its study can be unreliatble since this type of study is relied on statistical method of analyzing data, unless use large enough samples of respondents, otherwise it might not be able to provide accurate or meaningful results. Some psychologists criticized that quantitative research usually takes place in artificial settings. And the way researchers create an artificial settings such as in laboratory in quantitative research is due to the attempt to control the variables in their studies. That is the reason of why some psychologists doubted whether the results obtained in these unnatural settings can apply in the real world. Thus, again, results from this research method can possibly be unreliable. Summary Quantitative research is criticized for its low validity as it is unable to take account of the unique characteristic of individual cases and therefore results are generalized, narrow and lack of detailed information. Also, as the settings of this type of research are often artificial, information or data obtained from these type of studies are likely unrealistic. For these reasons, many psychologist has become dissatisfied with this traditional research approach in research design. Reference Coolican, Hugh (1990), Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. Hodder Sloughton. Gay, L. R. , Airasian, Peter. (1999). Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application, Sixth Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Huysamen, G. K. (1997, March). Parallels Between Qualitative Research and Sequentially Performed Quantitative Research. South African Journal of Psychology, 27, 1-8.