Research and Invention
Preparation is important for every part of your paper, including the research phase. The following suggestions are good ways to focus your initial search for sources:
- Link your research to a research plan: Start by creating a brief outline of ideas/subclaims that you intend to use to support your purpose. Then as you search for material, connect each source to an item on your outline. By doing this, you’ll know which areas in your paper have supporting sources and which areas still did need research.
- Think about the audience: What do they need to know? What might they know about your topic already? Is there any information that you can find that might be unfamiliar to them or even surprising? Are you writing for a specific audience or a universal audience? Remember that by predetermining your audience will help you identify what sort of evidence might be the most persuasive as well as how much background you’ll need to provide.
- Think of keywords: Remember that choosing a variety of terms/phrases that are all related in meaning usually yields a larger amount of possible sources. So beginning your search with a list of possible phrases might help cut back your time in the library or online.
- List the types of research material you’ll need: Obviously, you’ll usually be using articles and books. However, consider whether you can/need to incorporate other types of sources, such as personal interviews, speeches, TV shows, ads, songs, letters, etc. By thinking about these possible sources ahead of time, then you can begin keeping an eye out early on. Also, including these other types of sources tends to be more interesting and creative.
Library Website: http://www.lib.odu.edu/
JSTOR: http://www.lib.odu.edu/
ILL: http://www.lib.odu.edu/libraryservices/interlibraryloan.htm
Determining a Source’s Credibility
Remember, a source’s credibility reflects on your own as an arguer. In other words, if you pick an unreliable source, this suggests that you yourself are a questionable authority. If you pick a source that has more accepted authority, then you tend to borrow that credibility for your own ideas. The following list offers some ways to evaluate your sources:
- Is the source associated with an organization that is recognized in the field?
- Is the source listed under a reputable domain? For example, is the source from an university address, a government site, etc?
- Is the source published in a print or online journal that is peer-reviewed? Such sources are reviewed to make certain that they meet academic standards.
- Is the source accessed by a large number of people? Think of blogs, which indicate a discourse community’s ideas
- Is the source directed mainly to extremists? These are easily recognized, due to the amount of emotionally charged language or information stacking, implicit value systems, and extreme examples. Such sources are only useful when purposefully discussing the extreme positions.
- Is the source sloppy, disorganized, or undocumented?
Integrating Source Material
So you found a credible source, now how do you insert it properly into a paper?
First, be certain that you’re using the source to support your own ideas, rather than relying on the source to give you all the ideas. There are different ways of inserting material: Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation
Summary: expressing a source’s ideas in your own words, in order to condense a large
amount of information.
Paraphrase: restates a specific passage, using words and sentence structure different
from the author.
Quotation: directly repeating a passage from a source
When picking a quote, be very selective! Choose quotes that are unique and add some flavor to your ideas or work as evidence for your analysis. Quoting from a primary source is particular helpful. However, be very careful when quoting secondary sources, as you do not want to use too many and therefore clutter your paper and detract from your own ideas.
Make certain you introduce the borrowed material within the text (this is like a transition into the source information).
Ex. As Peter Herman states, “….” (123).
Common Knowledge:
Please note that not citing a source is plagiarism. Be VERY careful not to commit plagiarism as it can have dire consequences. If you think that you might want to cite some information, err on the safe side of caution.
However, not all information needs to be cited. If something is considered common knowledge, that is to say, if most people would know this information or recognize it as true, then you do not have to cite a source.
Block Quote:
Quotes that exceed four lines of text should be “blocked.” In order to do so, you eliminate the quotation marks, use a colon to introduce the quote, and then indent each line 1” (or ten spaces) from the left margin. Always provide a brief introduction to a long quote, then finish the quote with a concluding thought about what the quote means/suggests.
How to Read an Academic Source: http://bit.ly/119jgxM