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Mastering Research: Vetting and Utilizing Sources for Effective Academic Writing

Learn key distinctions in vetting sources, differentiate between vetted and unvetted sources, and navigate primary vs. secondary sources for well-rounded research. Discover strategies for handling various sources and honing your research process effectively.

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Mastering Research: Vetting and Utilizing Sources for Effective Academic Writing

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  1. Doing your research

  2. Some distinctions: Vetting • We rely on institutions that refine information • Check truth, comprehensiveness, reliability • Assure that information is clear and conclusions supported • Assess the strength of evidence for claims • Encourage examination of counter information • Scholarly review, editorial scrutiny

  3. Vetted Sources Scholarly journals with editorial boards Compiled sources of knowledge (encyclopedias depend on editorial team) Textbooks (check reviews) Edited media (becoming less reliable) Unvetted Sources Internet webpages Unedited media Interviews Conference proceedings Television programming (with rare exceptions) Wikipaedia (although working toward vetted) Some distinctions: Vetting

  4. Some distinctions: Vetting Dealing with Vetting • Library threshold used to be marker; no more • Develop a web of reliable sources through your reading • Look for signs of editorial review • Track disagreements among sources • Always cross reference information • Use unvetted material freely to point into vetted material • Direction of your work: Unvetted  Vetted

  5. Primary Sources created during time studied by participant in, or direct observer of, events reflect individual viewpoint of participant or observer Value: what actually happened during event or time period. Documents or statements Interpretation required for conclusions about the events Secondary Sources Created with distance from events Putting events into a context May weigh conflicting accounts May reflect intent of author Value: Sorting fact from imagination; placing into context Quality depends on reliability of source Some Distinctions: Type of Source

  6. Complications Cannot always tell; do not always divulge Really does not classify source but source’s relationship to claim Secondary sources use and sift primary sources: Are they right? Primary sources are subject to their interests: Are they right? Examples: Reporter who sat in the balcony as Jefferson delivered inaugural Reporter who interviewed Senators watching Jefferson’s inaugural Newspaper reports of public reaction to speech Newspaper editors reactions to speech Scholar’s report of how Jefferson wrote speech Clerk’s recording of speech Some Distinctions: Type of Source

  7. Advantages of Primary Give you direct access Give you a richer detail of event Free you from accounts written for a different time Advantages of Secondary Give you vetted sorting of facts Give you relationship of events to their history Give you a compilation of observers and participants Some Distinctions: Type of Source

  8. Research Tornado At most general level: • Read from internet, magazines, unvetted sources • Read many sources • Relatively unguided • Get general idea of subject • Develop the direction of research • Note differences among sources • Note key terms that might become search terms • Note any mention of sources that author relied upon, note indications of quantity and quality End by developing priorities

  9. Research Tornado As research progresses: • Go to quality sources you encountered earlier • Use search engines to find vetted material • Move toward more focused sources • Read to deepen your knowledge • Record material for presentation • Refine source list by quantity and quality • Refine key term list End by assessing knowledge: identifying gaps

  10. Research Tornado As research ends: • Use sources appropriate for questions remaining • Work back and forth from readings to search engines and indexes • Looking for specific unknowns • Record information for presentation • Capture dissent from conclusions You are ready to report.

  11. Threads descending through the Tornado • Your learning is focusing • Your depth of understanding is increasing as you read more narrowly • A trail of priority of “next” sources • A trail of refinement on search terms • An evolving plan for conducting your research • An emerging idea about what your report should contain.

  12. Doing your research • Work from a realistic strategy • Make intelligent decisions about that strategy • “Ten source” method • Use annotations to guide

  13. Sample Bib entry 1

  14. Sample Bib entry 1

  15. Sample Annotated Bib entry

  16. Sample Bib Entry 2

  17. Steps in Research Process • On Website http://www.wam.umd.edu/~jklumpp/comm498e/home.html

  18. Specific Content for each group • Also on website http://www.wam.umd.edu/~jklumpp/comm498e/home.html

  19. Some final advice • Short cuts in research are often illusions • Short bib entry • Flexibility in notation with do you service • Make decisions strategically • But follow hot leads • Always dual track as you proceed • Content and strategy of research

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