After reading over the prompt for this week I thought about several different topics to research. I thought it would be easy to differentiate information gain over the internet and information that was provided through books. I settled upon researching women sports. Having a strong background in sports and being a man, I figured it by researching women sports I can have a better understanding and appreciation for women sports.
My first thought after selecting the topic of women sports was how outstretched this topic was. Honestly I thought this would be a benefit because there would be tons and tons of information out there in regards to women sports. I was wrong. I was wrong not about how much information was out there regarding women sports but rather this information being beneficial. This was evident when I typed the phrase “Women Sports” into the Google search engine. There were numerous of pages that featured women sports. I would start reading one article that supported a specific point but the next article took me in a whole different direction. I thought to myself that changing the subject was the best thing to do yet I couldn’t come up with a specific topic to research that dealt with women in sports. I was in a bind because I had such a broad topic and by far too much information on one subject.
Later on that day my problem was solved. I went over to the library and typed in Women Sports into the library booking database and found a specific topic in women sports to research. I selected to focus on the coaching aspect of female sports, how they are viewed differently then men and the extra precaution they must take while coaching.
I selected a couple of books to skim through such as Coaching Athletics Social Aspects and Sports for Women Coaching. The interesting fact that I noticed with the information that was provided in these books was the clarity and supported information to the points that were being provided.
My next step was to find information over the internet. I researched my topic through the Google search engine and found somewhat of the same information. Although it was the same information the information didn’t really have that same kind affect on me as did the information did through the hard copy of the books. The information that was provided via internet was to highlight certain situations and make people aware that there is a difference in coaching amongst females and males. I didn’t feel as the information really supported the points that were being made.
I was very surprised at the outcome of this research. I defiantly thought the internet would provide me with more reliable information on this topic. I anticipated using majority of the information from the internet in any kind of paper rather then an actual hard copied book.
When writing a paper on a research topic I feel that I would incorporate information from both into my paper. The information used from the internet would be used to point out issues that occur within women sports from a coaching point of view and the information used from the hard copy would be used to support my points. I would used this method because the hard copy seems to be a bit more reliable because it someone’s work that is published. The internet on the other hand is simply articles posted on the web that are some what reliable.
Sources
Leadership styles of female collegiate field hockey coaches / by Jill P. Butcher. [microform]
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/issues/coach/article.html?record=27
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/issues/coach/article.html?record=575
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/grant_wahl/02/06/the.bag/index.html
2 comments:
I like your topic and bet that you found some great information. I am not an athlete myself but can imagine what types of dilemas female coaches go through. Its kind of like a women doctor trying to make a name for herself in the male doctor world. I too found that the information in the text books that I used were more beneficial to my research topic. I researched about effective communication between health care representatives. The internet was only able to provide me with surveys and statistics. I didn't find a great internet source that I would have used if we really would have had to write the paper. On the other hand, the textbooks had precise information. It did take me longer to narrow the search and I did have to read a little more but the information was worth it.
Daniel,
I think that women coaches was a good choice for you being an athlete. I personally have never had a women’s coach and I it made me realize how segregated the athletic world is when it comes to gender. Women coaches coach women's sports teams and I think that it will be hard to change that because of all of the sexual harassment issues that would be involved with the change.
I do agree with you that most hard copy sources are much more credible then the sources that you can find on the internet. But there are more reliable search engines than just searching the web an example might be Google scholar cite that has published materials that you able to access over the internet. While finding sources in hard copy can be very time consuming I agree that it is beneficial.
Alan
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