In order for something to HAVE a wikipedia page, someone has to make it. Those things don't spring from thin code, you know. Someone actually has to put the work in. You cpulf do it! All you gotta do is make an account and be as accurate as possible!
@Kylar Cheng You shred spare printed circuit boards and other electronic trimmings, layer it with similarity sized pieces of magnetic tape or hard drive platters, and let it compost. Let it sit for two weeks then churn it over every week after that until desired decomposition is achieved. Remember to wear gloves and a respirator, there's a lot of toxic heavy metals in that stuff.
I mean, that's the point of wikipedia. It's an encyclopedia. It's a hub for citations and context, but it isn't a source. Because that's simply not how it's supposed to be used. Its own creator said so.
YEEESSSS! Young history student here: this is how I write my essays. A few extra tips: 1. when looking for sources, dont just search in the online catalog of your library, but go there (in person, yes) and go to the shelves containing books related to your topic. Open every book that look maybe of use, immediately go to the summary or the contents section and see if this book is useful.You can easily contextualize and dont worry: you'll get better and faster at it after a while. 2. When writing down notes, use summaries or quotations of the thing that include key words and use the reference option to refer to the source. During the research you can open the word file and use the ctrl-f function to search the document, essentially turning it into your own personal little wikipedia page. 3. Don't underestimate secondary sources. Sure, the primary source is very important, but a lot of things (symbolism, wordplay in a different language, references, context) cannot be understood by someone who has only just entered a specific academic field. The further you go back in time, and the less you know about the everyday life of the maker of the source, the more important it is that you use secondary sources that can help you understand the text. Loved the video, and Im hoping people can benefit from the tips. If you have any tips for me, please leave a comment, I'm still in Uni so I could use the help.
Jason Ports Thank you. In a US history class I have to do a research project like this. Between Red’s video and your tips it should go somewhat easier. Now all I have to do is work on diminishing my procrastination habit. Eh I’ll work on that tomorrow.
I'd like to add if you can't get the article because of a pay wall your college librarian can get it on loan for you for free so long as you request it in a reasonable time frame . There's also open source sites that removes the pay wall especially on scientific articles
Actually it not a matter of time. A new Wikipedia page has to be written as a tertiary source. Which means someone must first needs to have a reason to publish a work about OSP, but work is a Secondary source, as those involved in writing can be involved in write with wiki page as then it a case of "own research" which well keep getting your work reverted or page deleted.
Needing to do research for an upcoming College project, I remembered this video and came back to write down all the info. And I technically used some of tips the video already had, without noticing (Note takings, organizing, thesis). So just thought I'd share my ✨Polished✨ summary of the Red's Wikipedia Research Technique (I know it's not really from Red's making, but since she's the one sharing it with us, just wrote it down that way): 1.- Wikipedia Pages Look for all the Wikipedia pages of or related to the research topic. 2.- Citations List all the citations ( [#] ) related to information that catches your eye on each page. 3.- Sources Take all the links and sources collected from the citations, and separate them in Primary, Secondary, and even (just in case, if it seems fit) Tertiary sources. 4.- Notes Make notes of ALL the information from your sources that seem valuable, and put it ALL together in 1 place. 5.- Uniting/Merging/Stringing/Haven't brought myself to finally naming this one really :/ Take the mess of information you've acquired, and do your best to unite it all in one coherent streamline 6.- Thesis Write down a thesis supported all the found evidence 7.- Polishing If needed or wanted, polish up all your notes and thesis to be presentable and consumable for others Anyways, I hope this summarized version is of use for anyone :D✨
@@johnmanole4779 Well, a bit anticlimactic. It turned out I didn’t need to do any of that research, as I had misunderstood the assignment completely. So I can’t tell you that I got and A because of it. Though I do can say it was a really enjoyable process, for I “had” to investigate 3 types of emblems for my Color class (I’m a Multimedia Design major). The point of the assignment (as I understood it at least) was to figure out what their shapes and color meant and communicate to the eyes, tl:dr why what was the point of them being designed that way? Answer I believed to be within the origins and history of each emblem. The emblems I chose were the Peace symbol & LGBTQ+ flag (Social Emblems), the Coat of arms of Harvard University (Coporative Emblem), and finally the symbol/name that the artist Prince used for a while when he had problems with his discographic (Personal Emblem). I did found out very interesting things about all of 'em (thanks to red for that), though due to the fact that I realize I misunderstood the assignment before finishing all of 'em, the only polished investigation I have is the one about the Peace Symbol. But if you'd like, I could tell you some fun facts I found out about the emblems, for to be honest, even if not polished, those all-nighters I pulled were wild hahaha. I was the personification of that sheldon cooper meme of "I don't need sleep, I need answers. I need to determine where in the swamp of unbalanced formulas, squatteth the toad of truth" (Specially with the Prince one...my gods was that a night...)
I subscribe to the tangentially related school of "get it digitally so I can Ctrl+F what I'm looking for later". Means whenever I have to use an actual book as a source, I hate myself, and whenever I DO have a digital source, the number of tabs I have open is normally double what it normally is (can practically hear Firefox creaking under the strain).
@@alamba1165 Lol, and use all of my RAM instead of just most of my RAM? I'll pass (from my testing, Chrome uses about 20% more RAM than Firefox for the same group of tabs).
Another tip that my highschool English teacher taught me was once you find a good source, make a bibliography citation for it and assign it a color. Any time you copy down part of the source, do so in that color so you can keep track of the source. Also, make an "in-text citation" for it and put it with each piece of information with the page number. Whenever you summarize or write down your own thoughts about it, write it in black so you know those are your words, not something from a source. I had several college professors question my sources because they "seemed too thorough" only to go through them and see that they were all right.
Yep this is basically what I do! Color code important quotes (include their page number when you grab them, even if you think you'll paraphrase it) and then make my summary/paraphrasing normal text with the color staying on the citation (parentheses with a matching number and any page number). Have the full bib citation at the bottom of the document in that same color. Then I go through at the end and put in my citation in for each matching color, adding the page number noted there if there is one.
Yeah, "Wikipedia", while not good as your *sole* source, it makes for quite a good source for sources It's something of a sourcerer *_Update: 12/6/2023_* - _Please for the love of god do not just straight copy and paste Wikipedia articles or other people's work into a word document and just read it out loud or you also will be the topic of an hbomberguy video_
The public library! Of course! That's what we used before the internet! Quick, MAKE HASTE TO THE NEAREST PUBLIC LIBRARY oh wait it's almost midnight.... back to google then.
@@mastray4783 Not pickle jars! My one weakness! No, but seriously, I try to avoid sticky situations, and to not be an appealing target for mugging or whatever. I don't want trouble, I just want to get along with my life.
My 11th grade English teacher taught like this. She was one of my hardest high school teachers and I never managed to get over a C on any of my written papers (luckily, grammar tests and quizzes and extra credit got my overall to barely an A). However, her teachings and methods are the ones that stuck with me the most throughout my life, both with researching and writing.
I still remember the first time I went to Wikipedia's sources for a history assignment and ended up reading 3 different university books (a few chapters of them, don't worry) and 2 news articles that were contemporany to the event. Seriously, y'all, those sources are amazing
You and Schaffrillas productions are some of the only people I've heard advocate for Wikipedia, but I've always loved using it. When I hit college and decided I shouldn't use it for a source itself, I remembered: "Wait... doesn't it have a Works cited?" And it literally feels like turning the internet into a library. I feel like that's honestly one of the best pieces of advice you could give someone on this, especially considering that when Wikipedia doesn't cut it, you can use *_another_* version of Wiki (and yes, there are plenty) like Wikibooks or something instead. Also, 4:32 Based.
@Deadman 640 yeah but it's not my phone really. I get so distracted by about everything. Even with nothing in my hands I'd find a way to procrastinate for some reason while the looming deadline closes by and me aware of it's presence but continuously ignoring it.
@@McJethroPovTee I just have some music in the background on low volume. Nothing with lyrics or voices. Or have a good podcast playing. Not sure if you're a psychicpebbles fan, but the recent Schmucks podcast was good, very informative for creative types. Keeps my phone on me and keeps my eyes on the book.
This video makes a series of very good points. Two of them seem key to me. 1. When you are reading, make notes so that you never have to return to the original text you are reading, ie, make sure you harvest everything you need from a source at the point of reading it (and the point about not memorising was also good). 2. The second point was a great relief to hear, which is, make your thesis statement after considering your research (with the thumb tacks and string, that section). I've only ever experienced one essay writing advice session, and its gist was that you make your thesis statement, then do your research around that statement, then, over a course of months keep refining that statement. That I think also works, and you do need something to drive you to research in the first place, but I like the more open-minded approach of this video. I also liked the cartoon representation of the speaker, it cut out a whole level of distraction and allows one to focus on what is being said, rather than who is saying it. Thanks for this, you've given me exactly the kind of basic pointers I was seeking.
you brave soul. After one year of Greek I ran away and went to Latin because my brain can either remember a new alphabet or new grammar rules, not both.
As a Greek who took four years of Ancient Greek I can ensure you, it's hard for many of us as well, let alone for people not used to the alphabet and rules of modern day Greek so really, I admire you all!
4:16 THANK YOU RED!!! I've been screaming about this on social media for 7 years. There's also cultural quirks that affect the word choice and linguistics (like the word for the number seven being used interchangeably with 'enough'). EDIT: that probably falls under 'the author's circumstances', doesn't it?
That little touch at the end of the video makes this so much more authentic. Forget about all of these “pro” guys on RU-vid. Give me the people that do it for the passion. Or the lulz.
Very very very helpful stuff. As part of your notes, I recommend creating either an annotated bibliography or using a source compiler like Zotero and making notes on your sources there b/c there will inevitably be something you DIDN'T write down in your initial note-taking process that you want to go back to the source for, and rather than hunting down the source from scratch, a bibliography can act as a shortcut to remind you where you need to look.
When I was in middle school I got into Greek mythology after having seen the 1997 Hercules and the animated series that came after it, so much so that I would often go to my school's library and look up books on Greek mythology and gave myself a crash course on the subject, as well as other topics. Bear in mind none of my classes taught Greek mythology until my freshman year in high school. The closest thing to that was when my long-term substitute teacher of 8th Grade Physical Science would talk about Greek myths in relation to astronomy when our course was on Astronomy. Side note, that was the first time I learned the myth of Eros and Psyche.
I REALLY needed this. I'm doing a research assignments comparing a classical and post antiquity culture utilising primary sources for my classical studies class and it really helped me see research in perspective
OH MY GOD I AM SO FREAKING HAPPY THIS WAS IN MY NOTIFS. WE'RE DOING RESEARCH PROJECTS RN AND THIS REALLY HELPS ME FIND SOURCES FOR CITATIONS AND RRLs. 😭
as a latinamerican student who can very much not afford paywalls nor has access to a library that covers at least most of what I need, I didnt even laugh nervously, I just laughed xD
Do I spy lots of Hermes examples. Is there going to be a video perhaps? *gets down and prays to Hermes* Seriously though, great video, thank you so much.
I know I'm 4 years late here, but this video is amazing. Especially the bit about how we're taught to make our thesis statement *first* before looking at the evidence. I always assumed the teachers knew best and the problem was on my end for "not doing it right". A lot of this stuff seems like common sense - but only in retrospect. I was having a ton of trouble figuring out how to get started. Thank you for making this.
This is a great breakdown of the types of sources and understanding their respective strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has biases. Secondary sources help you identify the biases of the primary source. Depending on how far removed you are from the secondary sources, you may need to find more sources about THEIR biases. Then you write your essay and add your own layer of bias. Academia is like one giant onion of bias.
it's just too much work to set up the lab for reproducible generation of societies and cultures. plus it takes way too long, longer than grants and fellowships last.
Red, you are my favorite channel. I love how you are so comfortable being yourself, and having a girl young girls can have as a role model that has a since of humor and doesn't have to act like a damsel without feeling weird. Wish I could've watched you as a kid. Thanks for doing what you do because I truly love every video and watch them all
I think the secondary sources, or contextual sources, are a vital part that are at times overlooked. Without understanding the times that a work was written in and more about the person who wrote them, it can be easy to draw wrong conclusions on a work. Great video as always!
I'm a librarian and "maybe this process isn't as intuitive as I thought" is pretty accurate, haha. I was never taught any of these research skills until my masters program in library science. Now that I know how it works, it seems so intuitive (it's step-by-step what you explained here!) but never having someone explain it is a real hinderance; you literally don't even see the potential paths you can take until someone else points them out. Awesome video btw!
Red, im totally going to use this the next time i teach a College level History class (ah, the curse of adjuncting and non-steady employment!) Seriously, you went over all the tricks i always tell students - but much much more succinctly than I do. Great vid!
I know this is a old video but just wanna say really thank you for the hardwork and effort you do in this research and then present it to us for our own entertainment and information
Just gonna say this before the video. After watching a lot of content, a very successful trip to Paris, and rummaging videos like THIS... I can say you guys are inspiring people like me (people who dont see potential, doubting success in college, socially anxious) to be more confident and EXCITED to make the jump TO college. I'm still doing my homework in making the most of my experience in applying to the right one. Videos like these though, demonstrate how awesome the channel and community is. Thank you for being a driving force in saying, "enough is enough, I need a higher education". Ok onto the video
If only you had made this video three weeks ago when I started research on stonewall for my AP Lang class, but your note about wiki and the sources they are connected too are SO useful, helpful as always!
That's my students, who just print the page that looks like the subject, banners and all, and hand it to me, and then wonder they I've failed them. It must be because I"m very evil.
If I was a teacher, I would love to put some really big, semester long, research project. literally a "class on research" where the teacher actually helps and gives time on how to get the information. However, I know there would be a surplus of half-arsed assignments, people who 'don't have time' or those that literally couldn't care lsss
This is slanderous. I have a short attention span and do amazing research because of it. Motivation to research can not be willed out of people, effort is not an endless resource.
The way this video made me want to just??? Research??? It's so SMART yet so “simple”, there's been a genuine way to do this the entire time and I’ve never even considered it! I love this channel so much and I’ve only just started watching. These videos are brilliant and the quality and commentary have me coming back time and time again when I have it to spare. Please keep up the amazing work!!
For topics that are not controversial, like politics or whatever, Wikipedia is actually really good. Science articles are pretty good, for example. There have been a few studies about it, and for topics that aren't really politically charged Wikipedia is more accurate than Britannica.
Still, you shouldn't cite it directly, because neither you nor a reader can judge whether the specific author is believable. If you just wish to informally inform yourself or others, I agree it is accurate in the vast majority of cases.
@@einekonsequenz341 😄 yeah for sure, it's not the type of resource that's good to cite. It's generally not a good idea to cite encyclopedias for any topic.
I'm mostly just saying that people are always trying to take a big dump on Wikipedia, when it's actually a great resource for getting a good overview of the topic, as Red is mostly saying here.
Its a big collection really good but also stupid things like conspiracy theories. It is useful as long as you doublecheck the data elsewhere to validate the stuff. It is useful but trust no one "dramatic pause". Especially on controversal or political staff. And the links are pretty useful to get to say interviews or archives.
The real problem of citation is that it can change, and quickly. This is part of it's purpose, and isn't a bad thing, over all, mostly, probably. But, it means that when someone goes to check on what you sourced, it may not be there, or in another form.
Here's how to learn every primary thing: Just learn every language in the World! If you're learning about aliens, then learn every language in the universe! It will only take you 10 Qadrupillion years!
@@kalyatime5219 Mostly by casual study. And it’s taken probably 10 years to get a decent level of understanding. I still can’t speak or write any of them well.
So I found this video back in 8th grade, when I didn't have to do research. However, I bookmarked it and found it again, and as someone now in the thralls of high school this is so helpful.
One thing to remember with the library aspect that you did not bring up, but which is essential, is Inter-Library Loan (ILL). That means even if your library does not have it, as long as a library somewhere in the US has it you can likely get it.
I have to say, I've just started researching the figures in my oracle deck and this really helped me figure out just how to research about 30-40 important mythical features
I was lucky to have a real good history teacher who showed me most of this. But yeah, research is pretty time-consuming and requires a lot of patience. It puts your love of your chosen subject to the test. One thing I would add to the video is: *Ask a question* . Ask yourself what you are looking for in the research (eg. How/Why did the Roman empire fall?) before you start reading or taking notes. This saves you so much time later on and gives you focus to avoid derailment into irrelevant subjects.
As an English teacher, I thank you, this is my process and NO ONE BELIEVES ME when I say write your intro and thesis after the research and the body paragraphs are sorted.
My experience with “thesis first” is that it’s useful for, like, middle school classes, trying to teach kids WHAT a thesis IS and how to actually write the paper, or for a literature class, where your source is ONE text (typically a book, short story, or poem) and the point is to see if you understood that text (or, y’know, actually read it) But for anything that is a REAL research project, this IS the real process.
Looks to the left, sees a big pile of primary and secondary sources for one of my uni term papers. "Yeah I should probably stop prograstinating and get back to those."
I never taught Language Arts, but I do know why teachers made students construct their thesis first or very early on in the process - it is to provide focus for the research process. At least when I went to grade school, a lot of classes had very limited "library trip" class sessions and because I went to public schools, they didn't usually count on any extracurricular research time from the students. We only had so many class hours to pour through the books, so having a way to whittle down your paper scope in the classroom before even getting to the library was very useful; it is a lot easier to take notes as a kid if you know the key words you are looking for about your topic. Also, by dedicating class time beforehand, the teacher also gave him-/herself time to ensure students picked a good topic (if there wasn't a topic list to pick from) and decent thesis points that would be easy to find, and give warnings to students if what they picked would be harder to find in the school's books or too narrow or broad for the required paper length. Once we had our notes, the rest we were expected to do as homework as we had all the materials necessary for the paper. For what you do, finding the thesis after your research works better for you since your topic is as broad or as narrow as you like AND the thesis is completely up to what you find, not just something you have to do for a grade whether or not you actually like the subject the paper is for. I really enjoy the thoroughness, depth, and passion of both your's and Blue's videos.
I learned about the glory about the reference sources of the wikipedia pages in university as well...In my third year...It could've been so helpful in my first and second years...
Thank you for dispelling the myth of "Using Wikipedia is bad." My college and high school teachers alike discouraged me from using articles from Wikipedia proper, but I learned in college that looking at the bibliographies for those articles (and proper scholarly articles too) led me to insightful books, articles, e-books, or other sources. I also learned that looking at ideas in direct opposition to the idea(s) you are researching/idea(s) you agree with from said research can offer insight into multiple perspectives about the research topic as a whole, creating a balanced personal perspective from you, the writer, when doing your project. If there is anything research for papers, whether going online to find secondary sources or giving a critical interpretation of a primary source I am reading for class, I can sum it up thusly: "If you haven't formed your own opinions of a text, informed by the language and ideas of readers who came before you (in critical papers) but still distinctly your own, then you haven't learned anything about it."
One of the best things my composition teacher taught me in high school is to take notecard-notes. Essentially, get a bunch of notecards, and *anytime* you see something interesting in a primary or secondary source, write it down on one and put it to the side. Ideally, this will leave you with dozens, if not hundreds of small tidbits of information that could be useful. Then, spend some time sorting that information by category - who it's about, the time period, a specific event, the text you got it from, etc. Do this with quotes and summaries too, noted to the exact page of those texts. Once you do this, slough off the notes you can't fit into your paper and then (if you want), organize each category into its own note pages. Congratulations! You now have tons of well-formatted notes on the tiniest scraps of information that lots of people probably skim over when doing research and have tons of quotes to pull from as well. All without having to worry about formatting while actually taking notes. This helped immensely when writing my thesis in my senior year of high school and it's only gotten more important in college.
Great video. One research resource suggestion: Perseus Project has most surviving Ancient Greek and Roman sources available to read and search online, in original language and English translation. This can really come in handy when you come across a strange word in Latin or Ancient Greek: click on it on the site and it shows you a list of times other authors used the word. It's not every source, but it does have most of them, with a decent search engine and no fee to use/read. Plus a few archaeological articles :)
Yeah that revelation hit me like a sack of bricks too. "Start with your conclusion then work backwards to find evidence that supports it" is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of how science works.
Kinda like how my novel takes place in a place that primarily exports are textiles I had researched the entire process of making textiles. And the breeding and mating fashions of different kinds of sheep. It was interesting.
It's amazing how all of my professors who told me not to use Wikipedia as a source never once realized I found about 95% of my sources in the references section on Wikipedia. Made my college life so much easier!
Something that I really noticed about notes is that I once thought "writing on paper works better for remembering somehow". Eventually I came to the conclusion that doing them digitally works just fine as well for me, but the essential part seems to be to actually describe it in my own words not just blindly copying the relevant sentence. If I copy/paste or directly type what is in the original work I read while studying things stay in my brain much shorter. Depending on what I'm reading and what I'm taking the notes for I still use a mixture of both, typically sticking to paper if the occasional sketch/diagram is useful and it doesn't have to be archived long term once I'm done with it. Still haven't found a good process to do non-text notes efficiently on the pc/laptop/tablet, touchscreens are a hassle and I don't think I'll invest in a drawing tablet anytime soon.
Fun fact: Putting “site:edu” or “site:org” (or any other wed extension) before your search will lead to only sites with those web extensions coming up. I find it helps. Searching sites like those, like Wikipedia, lead to more source lists and possible information.
