assi 10: LGBT assumptions

I would like to learn more about transgender people. This is a group of whom I know and understand the least about. I have had friends who were gay or lesbian but have not had the opportunity to affiliate with anyone who was transgender.

What I assume to be true about transgender people is that they are born either male or female physically, but psychologically they feel as though they were meant to be the opposite of what they were born as. Meaning, a person was born with a male’s body would psychologically or mentally feel like a woman. I also assume transgender people to be different than gays and lesbians in that, transgender people have a psychological disorder that causes them to have the feelings they do.

I learned this information from the media (movies, books, news, television), from discussing with friends, and from reading articles.

The most difficult portion of my research will be understanding the psychological process of a transgender person, what causes it, or if it is actually a psychological disorder at all.

assignment 9: Search string

I chose CSA Illumina.

Illumina seemed to give me a very good range of relevant topics.

In Academic Search Premier, there were numerous ways to narrow down a search topic, like searching for only full texts, searching for images, by date, publisher, author, language, pages, and document types. In Illumina, there were fewer options to choose from. Illumina had an area where one could change the subject area, date created, and one could limit to “latest update”, “journal articles only”, and “English only”.

Because Wicca is a new religion, there is not a plethora of information in any of the data bases, so making a complex search string to get the best results was not necessary. Academic Search Premier gave me 73 results and Illumina gave me 74 results. However, I am not sure that all the results in Illumina were full texts, as there was not an option for limiting to only full texts.

The “FindIt” option did not provide anything for me. I must not understand how it works. I only gave me an option to order items that were not in the library.

Since I have been working with data bases in IM 204, the largest part of my research strategy that has changes is my new ability to search specifically. Coming up with a topic is a relatively easy assignment, but IM 204 has taught me to narrow down my topic and then be able to search for specific topics relating to my research. I have found that it is better to begin my research on a specific topic, then broaden and expand as need be, rather than begin broad and try to narrow it as I go. I now try to come up with a very elaborate and specific research question before I actually begin my research.

popular mag/scholarly article contrast

I found that the scholarly article had more useful information for me to use in my reasearch. However, I also found that the popular magazine was easier and more interesting to read. I would probably use information that I gathered from a scholarly article before I would use the information from a popular magazine.

A, c. (2001). The scholars and the goddess. . Atlantic monthly , 287(1), p18-22.

T, T. (2010). Religion as a discursive technique: the politics of classifying wicca. . Journal of contemporary religion, 25(3), p379-394.

Academic Search Premier

I really liked using Academic Search Premier. I think it was very user friendly and I was able to get alot of good results withought being flooded with a lot of useless results that were merely wasting my time.
I do not believe I have ever used Academic Search Premier in any previous classes, but using it for the first time was really easy.
I believe I used on in my senior english class in high school, but that was quite a few years ago, I don't recall.
I am afraid that I am going to get information about my population that is incorrect. I would end up basing some of my research on false information. But I know that I just have to be careful and make sure that I verify the sources that the author used in writing their article or book.

My Population

To begin with, I assumed that my previous assumption about Wiccans was false, meaning I assumed that what I learned about Wicca from movies and books was false. So far, my research has taught me more about the history of Wicca, where it originated, who was influential in its gaining popularity, how people felt about it when its popularity began to significantly increase in the 1950's and 1960's. I also have learned that there are different denominations of Wicca known as traditions.

Some of my larger questions have to do with contemporary Wiccan traditions and Wiccans in Minnesota. I need to find out how they feel society views their practices and traditions, and how they feel about how Hollywood portrays witchcraft to people.

I have also learned that Wicca is very complicated. There are many different beliefs that are disputed and interpreted differently among practicing Wiccans. There are many different tools that are used in the practices and many different ceremonies that are performed.

Encyclopedia vs Wikipedia

An encyclopedia's Information is more credible than that of Wikipedia as there is a more official process to get a printed encyclopedia entry published vs the process of getting a Wikipedia entry 'published'. However, I have found that Wikipedia has a plethora of useful information which is constantly being kept up to date. Wikipedia is also extremely accessible. I am much more likely to use Wikipedia online vs using a writen encyclopedia or even an online encyclopedia.

On the online SCSU library website I was not sure how to search withing printed encyclopedias. I was, however, able to find entries by simply walking over to the encyclopedia section of the library and opening a few of them and looking up Wicca entries.

Also, by using Sage Refence through the SCSU Library website, I was able to find 36 entries on Wicca in online encyclopedias. I went to Library > Ebooks > Sage Reference Online > Advanced Search > Search Within Encyclopedias > and entered my topic.

In comparison with Wikipedia, the encyclopedia entries offered many different interpretations and definitions of what Wicca was. If offered dozens of research studies done my dozens of different people, whereas Wikipedia seemed to offer one definition. Although it was a very educational, indepth definition that offered different dates, influences, important people, and affects of society. Both encyclopedias and Wikipedia are two very useful forms of gathering knowledge, although I love Wikipedia and will definitely be using it in my research, I have come to also find the usefulness of encyclopedias as well, and feel that my research would not be complete without their influence.