I'd like to clarify a few points about this journaling. I also wanted to write about the bicycle helmet article and its critique that we discussed last week as several of you have been working on that paper and probably found that interesting.
Some of you have requested for some clarification as to how to go about finding articles, etc.
I suggest that do identify an article, do the following:
1. Try to frame a question. A possible question might be: "What is the effectiveness of physical exercise for reducing aggression in dementia patients?" It's a question for a big topic, nevertheless, if you note, you will see it has the following format:
Statement < name of an intervention> for < health outcome >
2. After selecting an appropriate, fairly interesting question that you want to answer (selection of this question will depend on your interests), go to a website for finding if someone has already worked on it. Some example website where you can find answers to that in the form of journal articles:
The UC Library - Great resource, try here first, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/databases/
Pubmed - http://www.pubmed.com
Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com
These are some suggestions. I trust you will find more resources to work on.
3. Run a search containing your desired search terms. If you do not know how to search the web, there are some excellent search tutorials put together by the library staff here:
http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/infolit/tutorials/databases/
Again, a great resource that you may want to use quite often. If possible, bookmark this resource (I shall discuss at a later session how you can use services like diigo (http://www.diigo.com) and Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com) to organize your research but for this time, follow one of their guides.
4. After you have completed the search and have identifed one article (just pick up one article), read the article with respect to the guides I have posted above.
5. Finally, based on these guides, write your paper and limit it to between 400-500 words. You can, for extra bonus add citations, figures, tables, etc. But these won't count towards the words in the text.
If there are more questions, feel free to ask.
i shall write about my reflections on the bicycle helmet article in a separate entry.
