The goal of this writing assignment is to gain practice in “accessing” information, as well as
analyzing the information that you find. This will happen several times throughout the course: I
will give you a question, and you’ll be asked to use the World Wide Web or other media tools to
find an answer to the question. In most cases, there is not just a single answer. Do not ask me
what I mean by the question. Your task is to decide what the question means, choose a way to
find the information requested, and then explain what you did.
As in a math class, when you write your journal entry explaining what you did, you should plan
to “show your work.” That means you should consider including the following:
1. Tell me how you interpreted the question.
2. Tell me where you looked for information.
3. If you used search terms, what terms did you try? What search terms were most
successful?
4. How did you arrive at an answer?
Please explain your findings and your conclusions in a one-paragraph post. You will be graded
on
1. Did you do it?
2. Did you do it on time?
3. Does it appear to your instructor that you were trying to find a meaningful answer?
4. Did you clearly explain how you accessed information and then analyzed or evaluated
it?
5. Did you make reasonable decisions, on your own , about how to interpret the research
question and what information to look for?
Here is today’s question:
If you spent one hour per victim discussing every person murdered in the United States
in one year, how many hours would you spend talking about murder victims?
