Sources, sources, sources
Before you start searching for sources, there are a couple of guidelines you should consider:
- how many sources do I need?
- what kind of sources do I need?
Most research assignments will indicate type and number of sources. Consider whether you need or should use primary or secondary sources. Does your teacher want you to find a scholarly source? Will your teacher accept Wikipedia or general reference sources (encyclopedias, atlases, etc)?
Read below for ways to locate all kinds of sources for your research assignment.
Primary sources
A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via email, blogs, listservs, and newsgroups are also primary sources. In the natural and social sciences, primary sources are often empirical studies—research where an experiment was performed or a direct observation was made. The results of empirical studies are typically found in scholarly articles or papers delivered at conferences ("Primary and Secondary").
At one time, locating primary sources required the researcher to go to a local library and hope that the library would have primary sources on microfiche (a flat piece of film containing microphotographs of the source) and then the researcher would put the microfiche under a large projector for viewing. Fortunately for you, those days are over. Many primary sources are located on the Internet. Below are links to find primary sources. But before you begin your search, look at the first link below for information on how to analyze a primary source.
How do I analyze a primary source?
Primary sources are not like books and articles that one reads. Analyzing a cartoon, photograph, song, etc. is not the same as analyzing the written word. Click on the link below for tips on how to "read" a primary source.
Primary Source Links
The Avalon Project Documents in Laws, History and Diplomacy
Life Magazine Photo Archive powered by Google
Secondary sources
Secondary sources will discuss or analyze information but have not been directly involved in the event or information. Secondary sources can be magazine, journal or newspaper articles, websites, books, podcasts, videos, movie reviews, blogs, etc. These sources are easily found in a database (a warehouse of sources) to which many schools and libraries subscribe. Currently, EGUSD offers students and teachers access to EBSCO databases. Click the icon below to access EBSCO. See Ms. Whitted in the library for log on information if you need to access EBSCO off-campus.
The LCHS Library is also a great place to find a book for your research. Click on the card catalog below to access the library catalog while on campus. If you need help finding a book, ask Ms. Whitted.
Scholarly sources
What is a scholarly source? There are some agreed upon common characteristics . . . . a scholarly source will. . . .
- Always contain footnotes and/or a lengthy bibliography (the writer wants to prove she's done her research)
- Often begin with an abstract (that's a fancy word for summary of the source)
- Tend to have a serious, sober look with no images and an easily read font (her writing speaks for itself and doesn't need sprinkles)
- Are written by a scholar in the field or someone who works in the field (she eats, sleeps and thinks about the field she's in)
- Uses language specific to the field so assumes the reader has some background to understand (she's talking the talk)
- Is peer reviewed which means her work has been vetted by other experts in her field
- Are often published by a specific professional organization (yep, that's a seal of approval)
Check out this chart that shows the differences of different publications ("UCF Reserach Guides).
(I think it's most effective to read from the bottom up)
A Note about websites
The Internet is a very inefficient place to begin to find sources but occasionally, you may run across a website that you think is perfect for your research. Be very careful - websites can be appear to be very believable but may contain false or biased information. To determine if a website is credible, click on our evaluating sources page to put it to the test!
As any good researcher would do, here is a works cited page for the sources I used to help me write this page.
