Study task 1 - research sources

Finding research sources

Jstor has a really helpful and indepth advanced search option which helps you narrow down everything to subject area. It also highlights your searched term throughout the documents like google books. However I didn't find it great with a time limit as theres so much content it can be hard to find whats really relevant.

The library took the most time in terms of finding relevant texts, even searching books on the library computers then having to locate them took a while which isn't good if you have limited time. What is good about tthe library is that all the texts there are proffesional published texts from reliable authours which increases the validity of the information gathered and means I'm more likely to be reading informed and well judged opinions.

 Google books was very helpful for scanning a document as you can enter a key phrase such as 'public good' and it highlights this phrase throughout the book which means you dont have to skim or read the entire document and saves on time. I found it was a bit like the library but quicker and easier.

Google Scholar didn't really appeal to me as a resourse, I found it hard to find any text in laymans terms and everything I found was too complex or academic to be helpful for me, I think I just need to spend more time looking at things

Websites were the best research tool for finding answers to very specific queries or questions compared to all the other resources and it's much more fast which much less time having to filter through whats relevant to me. The main problem with websites is the question of validity, anyone can say pretty much anything on the internet so it's good to cross reference or be careful what sources you're using. Also more in depth discussions on your topic such as whole essays are very rarely found on websites, other online resources were better for deeper discussions of themes.

the best research I collected

• I found a very promising book on Jstor called, with this already interesting and helpful quote; 'political art signifies a capacity to shape well the practice of power in a collectivity. Words are its primary tools; deeds are its direct objects; the common good is its ultimate aim. Exercising the political art transforms discourse into action that would benefit a political community.' I'm definately going to look into this book futher as it seems like it has interesting and developed themes and is also very relvant to my quote and the idea of the 'public good'
• where is culture created - a really short and interesting discussion on the origins and structures of culture, also helpful as it references other sources I could look into.