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Gathering and Using Evidence Text Version |
Text: When finding resources for your research, it is important to keep a few things in mind. Your sources should be reputable and academic. This is especially important for online resources. Sites that end in .gov or .edu will have information that is accurate, complete, and legitimate. Avoid using .com sites and Wikipedia for your research; anyone can publish information on these sites, and the information is not always accurate or complete. As a researcher, you have to examine your source to make sure it is credible. In a published source like a book, the publisher has already done this for you, but no one does this for .com sites or wikis. By using .gov or .edu sites, you can avoid being misinformed. You should also make sure the sources that you use are current as outdated material can skew your ideas about a subject. Including a variety of sources, both electronic and printed, will ensure that any biased information is balanced and does not affect your analysis of the subject.
Text: Here are a few suggestions to help you begin your research. Please use these sites only as a starting point. This assignment asks you to use a minimum of 2 sources. Although websites are listed here, books and magazine articles are also excellent sources. To locate books or magazine articles, you can search your library catalog or database. Remember, the best research will be varied. The Library of Congress is a fantastic resource for historical and literary research.
Text: Once you have selected your sources of information, it is time to take notes. It is important to use an organized system for taking notes and keeping track of your sources. The first thing you should do once you have your book or printed pages in front of you is create a source card. The information you need for a print source such as a book or magazine article is listed on the left; you will need to record the author, the title, publisher, date of publication, as well as the page numbers. The source number gives you a shorthand way to label your notes so that you will know from which source each bit of information came. The information you need for an electronic source is listed to the right. As you can see, you need much more than the website address. You will need to record the author, if one is mentioned, the title of the article, the title of the site, the date you accessed it, as well as the URL. You will need this important information to accurately document your facts in your paper and on your Works Cited Page.
Text: When taking notes, only record details that are important and pertain to your topic. You can record the information from the source in three ways: a direct quote, a paraphrase, or a summary. As you begin to take notes, you should identify if what you are recording is a paraphrase, which takes a specific passage and restates it using your own words, a direct quote, which records the information exactly as it is in the original source, or a summary, which records the main idea in general. All of these uses of information require citation. It is crucial to make note of what type of information you are writing down as you go because it might be days or more before you begin writing. By then, you will have long forgotten whether that sentence was a direct quote or if it was a paraphrase or summary. The next thing to think about is where or how you plan to use this information in your paper; by keeping this in mind you can avoid taking notes on information that does not help you prove or support your point.
Text: On this example, you can see that it was my first source and that it is a paraphrase. You can also see that I am going to use that information in my second paragraph to help me prove my point about the author’s personal experiences shaping his works. On this card, I have all of the information that I will need to use and cite the paraphrase correctly.
Text: Once you have credible research to support your analysis and you have created your source and note cards, it will be time to include your research in your paper. Avoid just “sticking” the quote in with other facts; always introduce and explain your research. You can do this in several ways: you can tag the quote, connect it with an explanation, or embed key words or phrases from the quote. I will show you examples on the next slide. A good writer will use all of these methods to create variety in his paper.
Text: For this sample, the direct quote is provided at the top of the screen. Tagging the quote usually involves mentioning the source or author. “According to…”, “Dr. King explains,” “Hughes states,” are all examples of tags. When you connect a quote with an explanation, you will still use most of the quote, but you will tie it to your point.
Text: Embedding a quote involves choosing a key word or phrase and using it in your own point. More advanced writers use the last two methods regularly in their writing.
Text: When you have completed the note-taking part of the research process, analyze your information for an idea that can be proven by the evidence that you have. You will be able to formulate your thesis statement based on the research that you have done. In the end, well-organized notes will help you create a focused and well-documented research paper that you will be proud of. Before accessing the assessment for 6.02B, you should:
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