Research Portfolio Entry One

My research topic is based upon the prevention of football injuries that will ultimately lengthen a football player’s life. One source I found that could aid me in the research process is The Prevent-System for Football Injuries. 1) Cerney, J. V. The Prevent-system for Football Injuries. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976. Print. This book goes into detail about the many ways to help prevent injuries that occur during football. Some of these ways could be gaining knowledge about the positions and the game itself or being active in daily conditioning. Conditioning is when a person/athlete performs strenuous exercises to help them get in shape for something, such as a sport. I could use this book to explain the multiple ways injuries can be prevented, so that no long term effects will occur on the athlete. The second source I found would help me in my research is Sports Injuries: Their Prevention and Treatment. 2) Featherstone, Donald F. Sports Injuries: Their Prevention and Treatment. Bristol [Eng.]: J. Wright, 1957. Print. This book is more broad than the one prior, which is beneficial because I can compare each different prevention method for each different sports injury. The other book does not talk about any treatments, as this one does, so there is more of a variety. I can use this to understand and explain the differences between the two.

Word Count: 227

Peer-review 9/24/12

Scholarly books and articles go through the peer review process to make sure that the work/research done by one scholar (professor, scientist, specialist, etc.) is valid and correct. But, just because it’s peer-reviewed, it doesn’t mean it is completely accurate. Peer- reviewers are only human, and in that sense, they also tend to make mistakes. But, that doesn’t mean that works that are not peer-reviewed are correct either. They could be, or could not be entirely factual. It just depends on the sources used. To know if an article or book is peer-reviewed is sometimes difficult, because it may not have it listed. If it is, you can look at the beginning or end of the book or article, where the author may have written something toward the peer reviewers or about the peer-reviewers. Some library databases may have a category in which you can narrow your search down to peer-reviewed material. Whenever I do any kind of research, I would want someone to check over my work to make sure I’ve hit my main points and have used accurate sources. I would ask any professor available, a librarian, maybe even my 15 year old daughter who is very intellectual. Especially with this research project, I would want to ask her or some football players I know of to help me make sure my information is relevant. In a way, I’ve used peer-review all my life. Whenever I second-guess myself, I ask multiple people who I trust, what their thoughts are on a subject. I can sometimes have a hard time with grammar, punctuation, and spelling, so my daughter is the go-to person for those errors. When it’s something related to my work I would ask people I have worked with in the past, and those who I respect in my line of work, to clarify things for me.

Word Count: 309

Relevant Sources of Information 9/17/12

For our research topic, many available resources could help us. Magazines are a big one, because there are so many sports magazines out there. Any recent accidents or injuries regarding a professional football player will most likely be in one of those magazines. Scholarly books are another source that could aid us, because we’re not the only people to think about this topic and want to research it. Therefore, scientists, professors, and anyone who found this interesting and wanted to help fix the problem would have done tons of research. We could look over this information and maybe use it to better understand our topic. Newspapers are similar to sports magazines in that they inform their readers of current news. If a professional football player got an injury, or serious illness that interested a newspaper editor, they would most likely put that in the newspaper whether it was on the front page or not. The story about it may provide information about the type of injury or illness and what maybe have caused it. Encyclopedias may help us as well, since they provide in depth information on certain topics. I haven’t looked in one a while, so I don’t remember how well they’re set up. That is something I might look into though. I’m not sure of how government documents would help us in our project, because I don’t think the government is really worried about pro football players. I mean they might be, because certain players may attain a rare disease that the government feels obligated to write about it. I’m not quite remembering everything Jessica told us in class, so pardon me if I’m wrong. I may still need help understanding these.  The scholarly journal articles may help as well, considering that they could contain articles about our topic. Like newspapers and magazines, they could provide up to date information about football related injuries. My favorite resource to use on research is the internet! It’s much easier in my opinion. I do know that not everything I read is true though, so sometimes It’s not a relevant source.

Word Count: 350

Change of Research Question 9/12/12

I did change my research question. I honestly did not want to because I thought my topic of the spread of Christianity was a great topic. My daughter agrees with me and is even a bit irritated that the members of my group changed it. They wanted to do football, which I do not mind. I guess it is a little easier than my previous topic. Unfortunately, I am not into football; I know absolutely nothing about it. Thankfully, my daughter is, so she can update me on everything. It is funny, because when I told her that they decided to go in a different direction, she went off on how boys are retarded and just don’t want to work hard. I thought she would like the football topic more, since she loves football, but guess not haha. I am eager to do this though, so I can learn more about football. New things are not always so bad. My new question is based upon how a football player’s career can be lengthened. This has to do with injuries and medical conditions. I suppose it’s more narrow than my question prior to it, because that event took place all around the world, and American football is, well just in the United States.

Research Question 9/10/11

My research question from Monday was about the spread of Christianity in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. I asked if it was more of an aggressive campaign rather than a spread of knowledge. I chose this, because I got the idea from my daughter’s AP World History Class. I believe it is a great question, because it can be taken from different aspects and broken down. So far, I’ve learned that it was a real important factor in Africa. When the Europeans came to different countries of Africa, they (of course) brought along their ways of life and culture. This really affected the people in these countries. Some ways were positive while others were negative. I didn’t get too far into my research, because I didn’t know if I would change my question or not. I feel strongly about this one though, so I doubt I will. But, who knows. I would honestly love to read deeper into it, especially in a specific area in Africa. I want to know how certain tribes felt when the Europeans arrived, like what they did, if they did anything. My daughter also has this book called Things Fall Apart, which is about this particular topic. I may do some reading into that as well. I’m excited for this assignment.

Group Topic Week 3 blog post

We chose football as our topic, but most specifically injuries. It has been proven that football players are more prone to suffer from medical conditions, because of the actions they pursue. For example, a new study suggests that professional football players are more likely to have neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, than the average person. This study was published recently in the medical Journal, Neurology. It surveyed 3,500 retired NFL players who were active in the league from 1959 to 1988. This idea is even more supported, since the causes of death for 334 players were high frequencies of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and ALS. These could be caused by concussions during their career. It was found that different positions can also affect the chance of getting one of these conditions. Players in speed positions actually have three times more of a chance of acquiring a neurodegenerative condition such as these. Dr. Julian Bailes, co-director of the NorthShore Neurological Institute, stated that this study is very limited in its scope since it is an observation for reporting in cause and death. Though you can only draw so much, it still supports the fact that neurodegenerative diseases can and do affect football players. http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112688952/football-brain-injury-long-090612/