I need help on an English project please!!

[KiltedClaymore]

in my English 101 class we are writing research papers. i chose to do an evaluative essay on the effectiveness of gun control. we cannot use any websites ending with .net or .com. wikipedia is out, so im looking for suggestions to databases and statistics. any help?

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

How did kids do their homework before they were able to run to the internet to ask for help?

 

[KiltedClaymore]

jorg, we cant use books either. lots of rules with this essay.

 

[camonympho]

Have you tried the .org websites...might be able to get the crime statistics for australia to back up the lack of help gun control is...

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

jorg, we cant use books either. lots of rules with this essay.

Was one of the rules to do your own research? The funny thing about research papers is a big part of doing them is about finding your own sources. It wouldn't be very high road of us to do half your homework for you.

Good luck.

 

[Khornet]

See

www.gunfacts.info
armsandthelaw.com
claytoncramer.org (or maybe .net or .com)

NRA website also. Good luck. If you want proofreading, I'll help.

 

[BridgeWalker]

Um, what are you allowed to use? It's not my field, but I'd start with ascertaining who the experts are on both sides: th Brady Bunch and the NRA/GOA/JPFO. I'd look for gov't stats and reports--your library should have a whole section of these.

Pretty much, any evaluative essay on gun control is going to become a discussion of how easy it is to exploit statistics.

Your prof told you to avoid .com sites because stuff on the information is certainly not research material. That THR happens to be a .org does not make it apprpriate research material.

For gov't reports and lobbying reports who needs to look at who wrote it, their credentials, thier biases, and most importantly their methods (like the Brady Bunch and thier infamous dead children stats--that consider one a child up to 20-something).

You should use some academic articles from scholarly journals--probably criminology, maybe sociology. The point there is they are peer-reviewed, not just whatever some guy decides to publish because it proves his point or will sell.

 

[cambeul41]

Using Google, try these additions to your search term:
• site:edu ~ site:info ~ site: org + search term
• search term + filetype: pdf ~ filetype:doc

(Delete spaces before org and pdf -- the software thinks I want smilies.)

 

[RPCVYemen]

in my English 101 class we are writing research papers. i chose to do an evaluative essay on the effectiveness of gun control.

There is a CDC analysis:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwR/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5214a2.htm

Here;s a National Academy of Science site:

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10881

I think that you'll find that a consensus is emerging - at least from those that are not desperately shilling for one side or another - that there is apparently not much of a correlation between gun laws (whether gun "control" or pro-carry) and violent crime.

My guess is that the other factors associated with violent crime swamp any correlation with gun laws.

At any rate, both of those papers are scholarly - that means they will be fairly careful to cite their sources.

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

jorg, we cant use books either

Huh?

 

[ReadyontheRight]

www.jpfo.org
www.thehighroad.org
www.nra.org

 

[RPCVYemen]

Huh?

"No books" is not be all that surprising.

When I was in school, the key problem to solve was access to information. Much of my research training was in how to find information.

For kids my son's age and younger (he's ready to graduate from college), the key problem to solve is filtering information. Access is no longer the issue.

His generation has more information about even obscure topics than my generation ever dreamed of. The kicker is the most of the "information" on the Internet is highly biased and/or wrong. The important skill for that generation is how to filter out all the bogus information.

It sounds like this assignment is intended to teach kids how to recognize bias, etc. on the Internet.

Mike

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Stoopid Roolz

Yep, you'll see assignments with stoopid roolz.

My son, as part of his comp sci class, was assigned a program to write.

In C++.

Except that he wasn't allowed to use any part of the language that hadn't been expressly covered in class.

O. M. G.

Every time I suggested an approach, he was like, "no, we can't use struct or string on this project, we haven't covered it yet.

What? Hello?

Hell, I taught programming for five years and I never told my students they couldn't read ahead and show some initiative!

My daughter went through similar restrictive roolz on some of her assignments, too.

I guess the prof imagines that this will somehow force the student to do "all new work" rather than crib from others.

*Sigh*

No, KiltedClaymore, it would be wrong for us to do your research for you, but the sites already mentioned should get you started.

Did somebody already mention Handgun Law dot US?

 

[czdavid]

I'm glad Wikipedia is outlawed on this paper. It should be for any research paper. The website is open for anyone to edit, whether the editing be right or wrong.

I'm in the middle of my college career and I understand the stipulations placed on this paper. Find your own sources and read them carefully. You will be surprised how much information you can find online. By asking those on this forum for help, you are only hurting yourself for this paper. Learn to research your own topics -- this will be a wonderful tool when classes start getting more difficult.

 

[Bix]

English 101 class

Are you on a college campus? If so, you've likely got a library brimming with academic journals at your disposal. Seems like a very straightforward (and enjoyable) research project.

 

[Beatnik]

Except that he wasn't allowed to use any part of the language that hadn't been expressly covered in class.

Seriously?

I hope your son also knows that in the real world those who read ahead and learn new things without it being assigned get stuff, like... for instance... RAISES and PROMOTIONS.


I agree that finding sources is the crux, but you know, if I hadn't seen it here a couple times I would never have known about the 2005 FBI crime statistics. And that's at a .gov.

 

[jojosdad]

in my English 101 class we are writing research papers. i chose to do an evaluative essay on the effectiveness of gun control. we cannot use any websites ending with .net or .com. wikipedia is out, so im looking for suggestions to databases and statistics. any help?

Don't spelling and punctuation count as well? (I'm usually not so much of a grammar Nazi, but this IS for an English course )

 

[RPCVYemen]

Every time I suggested an approach, he was like, "no, we can't use struct or string on this project, we haven't covered it yet.

Could be reasonable, depending on what is being taught.

I can certainly requiring an assignment not use the STL string class. Sometimes it's useful to ask students to muck around in the lower levels of a language before allowing them to use libraries.

It is a little harder to make the case for struct, unless the assignment was focused on access levels, and the teacher was trying to illustrate the difference between a class and a struct.

I was asked as a student to write a C program that solved "Towers of Hanoi" without using recursion - even though recursion is a part of the language, and clearly the elegant solution.

Ditto sorting routines.

Ditto various floating point libraries.

Sometimes the point is not so much getting at the solution quickly, but understanding a tool thoroughly.

Mike

 

[Piedmont Plinker]

Wikipedia is out- because it is "untruthful" and "anyonecan post anything they want" (I happen to disagree with this statement), or because it is a .com?
Because, technically speaking, Wikipedia is a .org
http://www.wikipedia.org/
Otherwise, check the .gov sites. .co.uk might also have some stuff, especially the BBC.
Not allowed to use books- huh? Check some periodicals.
Also- consider interviewing some people. Judges, law proffessors, cops, anyone you know who might know about this.

 

[cpttango30]

I never did C++ but I did take a java programing class in college how in the world you not use string when writing code? In our most basic program it still had to have string in it.

 

[esq_stu]

Get your hands on "More Guns, Less Crime:Understanding Crime and Gun-control Laws"

By John R. Lott 2000 University of Chicago Press

There is a second edition.

see http://www.amazon.com/More-Guns-Less-Crime-Understanding/dp/0226493636

 

[Officers'Wife]

OK, sounds to me as if the prof is an 'imagination junkie." May God have mercy on you cause he's not going to.

My advice... fbi.gov stat files. Do a compare and contrast on a city/state with draconian gun control with a state without going as far back into history as possible within the length of your paper. Then the other aspects of unrest during the high crime rate periods. Warning: make no conclusions within the paper pro or con. PC not only lives but defines your GPA.

Selena

 

[Dark Skies]

You could start by quoting official Home Office figures from merry (not) olde England and Wales.

Here, I'll give you a head start.

OF INTEREST TO EVERYONE IN THE UK and US
Home Office Figures

THE CRIMINAL SHOOTER - ENGLAND AND WALES
Deaths and injuries caused by the illegal use of guns.
1988 - - - - 410
2005/6 - 3,621

THE LEGAL SHOOTER - ENGLAND AND WALES
Certificates for the legal use of guns
1988 - - - - 1,037,400
2005/6 - - - - 692,500


CRIMES INVOLVING THE USE OF HANDGUNS
1988 - - - - 1,484
1998/9 - - - 2,687
2005/6 - - - 4,652

In 1988 semi automatic rifles were banned (apart from .22s) following the Hungerford massacre.

In 1997 Handguns were totally banned (save for humane destruction and police use) following a Scottish pederast's rampage in a school (Thomas Hamilton) in England, Scotland and Wales. The police collected all the registered banned firearms and destroyed them.

Naturally figures for those possessing firearm certificates for what firearms could still be held (bolt action / under lever, semi-automatic .22 rifles and shotguns) has fallen dramatically. Conversely all crime for illegally held firearms has risen dramatically. Figures are given only for England and Wales - Scotland has its own Parliament and legal system.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Thread Drift

Not to drag out the thread drift . . .

He wasn't permitted to use any of the string-related functions.

That included strcpy(), sprintf(), strlen(), and so on.

Because "they hadn't been covered."

It was a reservation record maintenance thing. Without struct.

He got there, but it became a mess of parallel arrays and stuff.

Yuck.

Now, back to the actual topic . . .

 

[scurtis_34471]

If you go to the website for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and look under licensing, you will find their page on concealed carry. On this page you will find some reports. One of these reports will show that they have issued about 1.2 million licenses in 20 years and have only had to revoke 161 for the commission of gun crimes. That is pretty compelling proof that most law-abiding citizens CAN be trusted.

Do a google search on FBI Murder by Weapon Type and you will find the annual FBI report of that name. It will tell you exactly how many people are murdered each year by each type of weapon or attack. I use that all the time to dispute the need for an assault weapon ban, because rifles are only used in 2.9% of all murders. More people are beaten to death with bare hands and feet than are killed with rifles and more than twice as many people are stabbed to death than are killed with rifles and shotguns combined.

I would avoid using websites like NRA.org and stick with more objective government statistics. Rightly or wrongly, most people assume that special interest groups "cook the books" Its much harder to argue against "real" numbers by official agencies.

Another good place to find documented links to other resources is www.guncite.com.