I am interested in observing the discourse community surrounding feminism and the

interpretations it receives from many different audiences (i.e. men, conservatives, etc.). Im

interested in feminism related to my extended inquiry project because I think a lot of why

womens prices are higher than mens for the same products has to do with taking advantage of

women, having less respect for them, and seeing them as objects rather than people. However,

my goal is to only observe and have no judgements or opinions while taking a look at this

discourse. Ive made observations that women usually get the short end of the stick when it

comes to finances and money matters. Whether it is purchasing a car, bargaining, or buying a

product in the womens version, they usually come off with a worse deal than men do. Ive

observed that this is almost seen as kind of normal, almost like women are seen as weaker, and

need to just accept the circumstances they are given. Not only that women need to accept their

lower place on the financial totem pole, but that they do, often without question or a second

thought. We usually chalk it up to being more high-maintenance or having higher quality

products, but that really is not the case if you do the research. I need to suspend judgement to

conduct this research because its very easy for me, as a woman, to get upset at the injustices

and inequalities of this. However, for the sake of making change for the women of the future, I

have to remain objective.

Citation format is an easy way to build credibility and professionality. People are much more

likely to be persuaded by what is in your presentation if they know that the facts and figures you

are providing are from real people who have real expertise in the fields you are teaching about.

While creating a citation, Im usually forced to really look at the author, the date of what I am

citing was published, who it was published by, and what type of website or book or other type of

publication that I derived it from. Each of these are especially important in determining the

credibility of a source, and how relevant it is to what I need. The author always seems more

credible if they have some sort of credentials by their name, such as MD, Ph.D, or the title of

what makes them distinguishable. The date is also important because of how recently it was
written will usually tell me if it can aid in my research. For example, an article on cyberbullying in

1993 is going to be very different from an article on cyberbullying written in 2015. The publisher

is also important because they themselves can be renowned for having scholarly sources or

writing honest articles. Following citation format is important not only for establishing credibility,

but giving credit to others where it is due, and not claiming someone elses original work as your

own, even if you only used bits and pieces here and there.

10 Best Practices for Performing Research

1. Get access to databases

2. Use boolean operators

3. Consult with your librarys research guide

4. Use keywords

5. Make a concept map

6. Watch how-to videos

7. Meet with a subject librarian

8. Visit the research help desk

9. Attend a research workshop

10. Always filter out abstracts in your results (since you cant get a lot of info from those)