10/31 Sources and Uses
Book
- You will likely find more accurate and extensive information depending on the author. If it is a scholar, a professional, an expert in a certain field, or someone who experienced a certain event firsthand, then you can rely more on them.
- This is actually one of the best sources that you can use. It is a source that is actually printed in paper, instead of being circulated on the web, which is not a bad place to find a source, it's just that you can always count on books.
- Depending on what I'm researching for, I could use this source to support my argument and further my point.
Blog post
- This source really depends on who is the author of the blog post and what they are posting about. More likely with blog posts, you will find people who are more opinion oriented than fact oriented.
- Again, it depends on the author and what the post is about. I think this could be a very good source because, depending on when you get it, it could be something that is a really fresh topic and debate. So getting that most recent blog post can be a great positive for your paper.
- You could use this source to write about a certain person's view. In this case, opinion oriented blog posts wouldn't be bad, not that they really are. With that said, you could also use it to review what facts that person used, how they used them, and if they are even correct.
Scholarly journal article
- These can be as dependable as books because these are written by scholars, you know these are people who know their stuff and would give an expert review and good research for your topic.
- This is another great source to use because it is more reliable and carries a lot of credibility.
- You could use this source to quote what these experts say to, again, support your argument or facts.
Wikipedia
- You could find very detailed information, but you wouldn't be able to completely rely on it. Sometimes you can find a very broad description or summary too.
- Generally, this is not a reliable source, so it could be considered bad. Some of their info is taken from a more credible source, but most of it is stuff that anybody can edit. So, not good.
- I would not use this as a source in my paper, but one could use it to show how unreliable of a site it is.
Podcast
- All I remember from watching any podcast is that it was more about giving helpful information and statistics.
- It would be a good source to use, mostly depending on what you are writing about. ( I feel I am reiterating myself.) Especially if there are a lot of statistics.
- You could use this source like scholarly journals and books, to quote what a person has said.
So, first, I'm going to make all of this more confusing -- books are not necessarily printed on paper. Our library has lots of e-books, which you get to online. (To find one, do a broad search, and then look on the left to find "format" -- if you click on "electronic", it will give you a list of electronic books we have on that subject.) These are just electronic versions of books, so they have the same type of information you'd expect to find in a print book (and many are available in both formats). Google books also provides access electronically to lots of books -- they scan images of books that are out of copyright, so it's the same information just in electronic format!
ReplyDeleteSecond, you're right about wikipedia, it's not a reliable source to use in your paper. However, you could still use it at the beginning stage of your research to learn a bit about your topic -- then use that knowledge to develop a better research question and come up with keywords to use when searching the library catalog and databases!
And, finally, podcasts should be evaluated as heavily as blog posts and websites. Several sources are great, but there are also plenty of really bad examples out there! I've assigned some for y'all to listen to, and podcasts seem like generally good sources if you're just judging by those examples... But that's because I evaluated the sources available and picked the best ones to assign!