Practical 3- Activity 4
In tutorial, we were asked to do a small experiment on two search engines namely, Google and Google Scholar. I started off by choosing Google Scholar. It was quite a new name to me as I would not have known of its existence if not for this tutorial lesson. I was amazed by the fact that Google Scholar has many search features such as material, article, link and date. Furthermore, it is able to categorise it into journals, news etc. I was amazed by such feature and the first thought was that these features will be of use in helping me to find information regarding my research topic. Before our researching, we were asked to key in the search query to aid us. Below is my search query:
(impact OR effect*) AND (financial OR economic) AND (crisis OR calamity) AND (spending* OR expenditure*) AND (consumer* OR buyer*) AND (habits OR routines)
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| Google Scholar |
After looking at the results, my first thought was wrong. There is no related information to help me in my research. Judging from a common view, the first page will usually have the information that we are looking for but this is not for the case of Google Scholar.
Therefore, I moved on to Google. Although Google do not have those features that Google Scholar has, the search results were to my satisfaction. There were many information for me to choose from unlike Google Scholar which I have click many pages but all the information are irrelevant to my knowledge.
In the end, I choose Google as my search engine as it proves to be much more effective. However, both the search engines have their pros and cons, thus, complements each other in helping users to find the relevant information they want.
After participating in the online discussion forum, I feel that it is much more effective than face-to-face discussion as we will be able to voice out our opinion more freely. As compared to online discussion, during face-to-face discussion, you will be the centre of attraction and sometimes your awkward movements/gestures will be seen by others. However, we must know that everything has its pros and cons. For online discussion, you may not get an immediate response to the comments you posted.
The forum that I participate in is not really useful to my research topic as mainly the comments that they posted are mostly related to unemployment as well as investment. However, it can serve as a reading topic for me as it helps to widen my knowledge regarding finance- It doesn’t hurt to read more right?
Overall, I am quite nervous when I am participating in this particular forum as those people who posted are most probably professional analyst or investors. I fear for the fact that the comments I posted may appear irrelevant or rather stupid to them.
Why do we do citation and bibliography? Citation is an essential feature in a research work. By doing so, it serves a purpose of acknowledging the source of information and to prevent plagiarism. Bibliography, on the other hand is an extensive list of sources you have consulted as you worked on or thought about your document. In addition to identifying the sources you have cited in your paper, it represents the research you've done in preparation for writing, and it offers your audience suggestions for further reading on your topic.
Imagine that you have created a work and someone steals it; claiming it to be theirs, how would you feel? Similarly for researching, it will be unfair if you took someone’s ideas and claim it to be your work. Therefore, both citation and bibliography is IMPORTANT.
