Literature Review/Proposal Update

1. I was able to find the information Rachel requested that I add to my literature review. I made revisions where necessary, and I think it added a lot to my paper. The critiques really helped my paper, and I'm glad I was able to get feedback before my final paper is due.

2. I do not think I'm going to write a research proposal or project proposal. I think I will talk to the president of STAND, but I do not think it needs to be very official. I do not want to intimidate anyone or seem like I know what to do instead of what they're doing. I want them to see my findings, and take it or leave it.

Literature Review 1

a) BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Windahl, Sven et al. Using Communication Theory. New York City: Sage Publications, 1992.

b) The book is broken down into three parts: the basics of communication theory, the theoretical approaches to communication planning, and the elements of mass communication theories. I chose to reseach the third part, and focus mainly on political campaigns. I found a very useful general rules about campaigns. It will help me create my own communication campaign to educate others about Darfur.

c) The purpose of the research done in this book is to teach others how to use communication theory effectively and to get the best results from it.

d) The research in the book is qualitative. The authors cite many different communication sources. There is a long list of references in the back, all of which sound very credible. The information is not biased either, so this give the author more credibility also.

e) This book does not violate any critical thinking rules. They followed each of the guidelines rather closely and it made for a good source to use in my research project.

Project Progress

In doing my literature review, I did a lot more research on my topic. I don't really like long, tedious projects like this because I feel like I never get anything done! I made some major progress over break though. It's sometimes hard to find information about communication specifically about politics, but that means I'll need to research a broader topic and apply it to politics. I think my project will be very interesting and help STAND recruit more members, since they are working toward a very important cause.

Reading and Learning-Disabled Children: Understanding the Problem

a) Bibliographic Information: Martin, Don, Magy Martin, and Kathleen Carvalho. "Reading and Learning-Disabled Children: Understanding the Problem." The Clearing House, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Jan.-Feb., 2008), pp. 113-118

b) This article is about teaching learning disabled children to read and write. The authors emphasize that academic success comes with good reading skills, as reading well will enable you to excel in school work. The authors also stress that children with learning disabilities have the most trouble reading, and that they need to begin to read early. All disabled kids are different, so they need different exercises to get them reading. The authors suggest that teachers and parents use a combination of whole-language approach and direct-instruction approach. The authors also warns teachers and parents about psychological and social problems that stem from poor reading skills. The authors close with recommendations for teachers to most effectively teach children with learning disabilities to read.

c) The article is separated into sections by headings. There is an introduction, background of the problem, emotional consequences for non-readers, neurological learning factors, choosing instructional approaches, psychological and social implications, and recommendations for teachers. I really liked the way the authors included headings to separate the article.

d) The purpose of the literature review done by the authors of the article was to see the success rate of each trend used with learning-disabled children.

e) There were no critical thinking violations in this article that I saw.

FINALLY!

I've finally decided on what I'd like to research for my project. I think it'll be a lot of work, but I'm excited to get started. It caused me a lot of stress not knowing what I was doing!

I am working with STAND: an anti-genocide student coalition. When I went to my first meeting I noticed they had about 10 people in attendance. I have read many public opinion polls that say the genocide in Darfur is a topic that many Americans care about and would like to see end. Based on this, I am planning on researching how to effectively teach people about current event issues in politics. Hopefully with what I learn I can help the group recruit more people and make a bigger impact on the students on campus.

My Google Trick

My favorite Google trick I learned was how to use the Advanced Search effectively. I used the first three lines, "all these words," "this exact wording or phrase," and "one or more of these words." I also changed the results per page from 10 to 20. When I searched " Janjaweed "Omar al-Bashir" Darfur OR genocide OR Sudan " I got 71,700 results. When I just searched "Darfur" in the basic Google search, I received 9,680,000 results. If I click News instead of Web results, I get 68 articles with my Advanced Search and 11,222 articles with the Basic Search. The first page of my Basic Search with web articles shows mostly support groups for Darfur, like savedarfur.org. There are also a lot of Q&A sites with basic information, and of course Wikipedia is at the top of my list. With my Advanced Search, Wikipedia was also the first two entires, but one for "War in Darfur" and one for "Janjaweed." The rest of the page had sites that were directly related to my topic, including some decisions made by the Sudan president Omar al-Bashir. I really like the Advanced Search and I'm going to use it to gather more research for my semester research project as well as my event project.

Critical Thinking Gone Wrong

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/19/chimp.cartoon.apology/index.html#cnnSTCText

The NY Times is being criticized for publishing a cartoon in its paper. The newspaper apologizes for the misinterpretatitions, but still defends the cartoon.

"The drawing is a reference to the mauling of a woman by a pet chimpanzee, which was then killed by police. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

The Post said the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an "ineptly written" stimulus bill.
"But it has been taken as something else -- as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism," reads the statement. "This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize." "

Many readers felt the chimpanzee was intended to depict President Obama. They also felt that it was a racist reference to the past.

The decision made by the NY Times to publish this cartoon is a good example of critical thinking gone wrong. The appear to have not considered other interpretations of the cartoon. If someone had thought of the ways some might view this cartoon, they probably would not have published it and therefore would not have been in this position.