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Lecture 01B
(Week 01, Period B)

I. The Proposal

The Proposal has three components.  Make sure that you complete them all for full credit.  Be sure to complete all the items in the checklist when you turn the assignment in.

1. The Proposal Memo
2. Bibliography of 15 sources, with at least 5 government docs.
   
3. Audience Analysis Sheet. Make sure your audience is a real individual!
   

During this part of the lecture, review the proposal guidelines:

II. Research

There are two basic forms of research: primary and secondary. 

1. Primary research is research you conduct yourself.  It varies depending on your discipline.  For a psychologist, it might be an experiment on volunteers, or a survey.  In the sciences, it would be an experiment.  In history, it involves finding the oldest source for an event.
2. Secondary research is learning about somebody else's research.  It is the starting place for research, since you don't want to replicate somebody else's discovery.
   

I'd like you to research from the following sources.

1. At least one definition from the Oxford English Dictionary.  Log in with your Tech email name and password.
2. Use journal articles from the Tech database.  I suggest starting with JSTOR, since it covers a range of subjects and has full articles in its database. Log in the same way as with the OED. I've converted a library handout to a webpage. This handout tells you how to do research using our library resources.
   

3. You can get your government documents from USA.gov.  You can also find state and local documents there.  For other countries, you'll need to go to their governments' web sites.
   

You can also find sources through Google, but you need to be very careful about the sources, since there is no uniform reliability to the internet.  Look, for example, over the bibliography of the Mad Cow Disease report.

“About Prions.” The Prion Institute. Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 1996. <http:// www. prioninstitute.ca/ index.php? page= webpages& menucat=35& id=9&action= displaypage&side=1>.

This web page is from the Prion Institute in Canada (prioninstitute.ca/).  You can find out more about the Institute on their About page.  Most institutions have them.

“Annual Percentage Change in Weekly Spending on Selected Meat Products.” Nielson. 5 Jan. 1996. Web. 11 Apr. 1996. <http:// www.nielsen.com/ home/ press/ uk/ beef_2.gif>.

The Nielsen Company is best known for tracking ratings for television shows.  Their whole business model depends on their reliability.  We thus are on pretty solid ground trusting their chart.

“BSE: Statement by Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) of 24 March 1996.” MAFF: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, UK. 7 Oct. 1996. Web. 3 Apr. 1996. <http:// web.archive.org/ web/ 19970710145324/ http:// www.maff. gov.uk/ animalh/ bse/ seac2.htm>.

This is a statement from the United Kingdom (English) Ministry of Agriculture during the middle of the Mad Cow Disease Crisis.  The Ministry of Agriculture was focused on reassuring the public and keeping up sales of beef.  So do we trust them?

Calman, Kenneth. “CJD and Public Health.” Department of Health. 2 Feb. 1996. Web. 8 Apr. 1996. <http:// www.coi. gov.uk/ coi/ depts/ GDH/ coi6738b.ok>.

This is another statement by the UK government, but this time it's the Dept of Health.  Govt agencies don't always agree with each other, so we'd need to see how they line up with the Ministry of Agriculture.

“Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.” University of Iowa Radiology. University of Iowa, 12 July 1995. Web. 29 Mar. 1996. <http:// web.archive.org/ web/ 19961203055353/ http:// indy. radiology. uiowa.edu/ Providers/ TeachingFiles/ CNSInfDisR2/ Text/ 238.html>.

This is a microscopic image of a slide with part of the brain of somebody with CJD.  It is hosted at the University of Iowa Medical School.  Generally we assume that the doctors who set up the site want their students to know what the brain of somebody with CJD looks like, so we generally trust the site.

Hueston, Will, and Harley Moon. “Questions and Answers About Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) from The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.” Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. 21 Mar. 1996. Web. 29 Mar. 1996. <http:// web.archive.org/ web/ 19970221192535/ http:// www.cvm. tamu.edu/ fs_bse.html>.

This page was originally posted by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.  What viewpoint do you think they will take toward the crisis?

“A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Living Marxism. 24 Feb. 1996. Web. 8 Apr. 1996. <Http:// www.junius. co.uk/ LM/LM87/ LM87_mad. html>.

The source for this page is Living Marxism.  How will their viewpoint differ from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association?  All these sources have some perspective.  We need to take that into account when we weigh the value of their message.

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