Analyzing Sources

Purpose of Source  Provide background information or context  Explain terms or concepts  Provide evidence for your argument  Lend authority to your argument  Offer counterevidence and other interpretations

Types of Electronic Sources  Abstract: summary of a work  Excerpt: first few sentences/paragraphs  Full text  PDF (exact copy of print document)**  HTML (text file, not paginated)

Difficulties in Using Sources  Bias  Credibility of Sources  Currency of Information  Complexity  Conflicting Information  Amount (too much, too little)

Bias  Political  Religious  Cultural  Philosophical  Research-based

Activity  Newspaper Headlines Obama peddles modest American dream on campaign trail Obama’s campaign travel raises money and criticism Obama’s trip West fills his campaign coffers Obama takes ‘made-in-US’ message to Midwest What do you think the bias is of the author/newspaper? Are they for or against Obama?

Credibility: Can you trust statistics?

Web Site Evaluation AuthorPurposeObjectivity Coverage CurrencyRecognition

Evaluating Web sources  Who sponsors the site? .com (commercial) .edu (educational) .org (nonprofit) .gov (governmental) .mil (military) .net (network) .jp (country-specific sites) link

How to establish your own credibility  Evaluate your sources relative to your research problem  Narrow your sources to a few most valuable to your research  Need to skim through a lot of material first (speed reading)  Read all of the information from the most valuable sources  Read through it slowly and thoroughly Especially if you are quoting or using arguments  If a source references a primary source, it is better to go directly to the primary source.

Document Properly  Take full notes  Get complete bibliographic data  Get attributions right  In your notes, distinguish summary from paraphrase and paraphrase from summary.  Put quotations around quotes and avoid close paraphrases.  Photocopy quotations of more than a few lines.  Always record page numbers

Get the Context Right  Reference not only the conclusion, but the arguments that support it  Is the claim a main point or minor point (how critical is it to the author’s argument?)  Be sure about the scope and and level of confidence of the author in making a claim.  “X seems to often cause Y” vs. “X causes Y”  Don’t confuse quoted authors as representing the author’s view  Understand what the source of differences are between authors (approach, evidence, interpretation)

Tips  Do not attach yourself to only one author’s view  Your research lies in the discrepancies between authors  Which has the better argument? Better evidence?  Double-check your notes against your sources  Organize and summarize as you go  Get other people’s perspectives on your work as you progress  Teachers  Colleagues  Study groups

Homework  Identify which source you think is the most credible and explain why:  Solid rationale for his or her arguments  Supportive evidence  Referenced in other authors’ works  Select one article from a credible source:  Read through it slowly and thoroughly  Take notes as you go: paraphrase, summarize, reference pages  Put quotes in quotation marks or copy pages containing quotes and highlight them  Copy title page  Submit notes with copies and rationale for selection