Finding Sources

The types of sources you turn to for your research will depend on your research topic.

True

A movie review would always be considered a secondary source.

False

A writer is interested in focusing his upcoming research project on the topic of human rights. He needs to decide on a specific research question within that area and then collect both secondary sources and primary sources to fulfill the requirements of his assignment. For the primary sources, his best option would be to collect his data in the form of surveys, interviews, or observations, as he has no access to other types of primary documents.

False

When searching in a library database, trying a synonym generally helps writers narrow their search.

False

Wikipedia should never be used when researching a topic.

False

A writer who works for an advertising company is tasked with analyzing a few rough drafts of advertisements for a new product. She is asked to research how persuasive the ads are likely to be and to present her findings in a report to her colleagues. Which sources would she be most likely to cite for this project?

Likely to cite scholarly journal articles credible websites interviews Not likely to cite a reference site such as Wikipedia blogs

When starting a new research project, a writer should first check the assignment to see if the requirements include the use of ________, which are original works created by someone with firsthand knowledge of the subject, or ________, which are works that interpret or discuss original works.

Primary secondary

Whether a source is considered primary or secondary sometimes depends on a writer's topic and purpose.

True

A student begins a research project on the opioid epidemic with an interest in the perspective of nurses in neonatal units. She wants to know what support there is for pregnant women who are addicted to opioids. To help her figure out what she wants to focus on, she decides to interview a nurse she knows from a local hospital.

makes sure they are all simple yes or no questions does not take notes during the interview

A student wants to look into whether it makes sense for his college to provide healthier lunch options. His cafeteria has a hamburger station, a pizza station, and a salad bar station. He worries that even if healthier options were added, students would still choose the unhealthy food. He decides to observe students in the cafeteria for a few hours on one day to track how many students go to which stations and to interview a few of these students.

student makes his decision about what and when to observe during class one day and, without thinking more about it, gets started right after class he decides to leave early

All the sources found through library databases will be scholarly sources.

False

Library databases are the only way to find scholarly sources.

False

A writer typed creativity and innovation into a library database and got the following list of results. Drag the labels below onto each of the following sources based on whether they are likely to be scholarly sources or popular sources.

scholarly scholarly popular scholarly

A student wants to do a research study on how high schools prepare for possible gun violence. He thinks it might be interesting to write a survey and post it on his Facebook page, asking everyone about how their schools prepare for possible gun violence.

including mostly open-ended questions decides not to test his questions

Which of the following questions are important to ask when considering whether or not to do field research? Which are not important?

Important Have you planned out and tested your goals, methods, and questions ahead of time? Does the project require field research? Do your sources have experience with the topic of your research? Not important Do you have previous experience with field research?

If a writer is searching for recent legal cases or law review articles about gun violence, which database would probably be most helpful to start with?

LexisNexis (Nexis Uni)

A writer is planning to do a research project on global warming. Which types of sources would likely be useful for doing background research on the topic?

Likely to be useful a reference site such as Wikipedia interviews scholarly journal articles credible websites newspaper articles Not as likely to be useful

A writer is working on a report that will provide information on career opportunities in the field of psychology for recent college graduates. Which types of sources would likely be useful for doing background research on the topic?

Likely to be useful blogs interviews a reference site such as Wikipedia credible websites Not as likely to be useful scholarly journal articles

Are the following strategies likely to narrow or expand a search?

Narrow using a more specific search term filtering results for certain publication types (such as scholarly journals or newspapers) searching for an exact phrase Expand using fewer keywords using an "Any of these words" advanced search

Are the following strategies likely to narrow or expand a search?

Narrow using a "None of these words" advanced search searching for an exact phrase Expand using a more popular synonym using fewer words

When evaluating a source to determine whether it is scholarly or popular, writers sometimes start by examining the end of the URL. Which of the following URL endings are more likely to belong to scholarly sources, and which are more likely to belong to popular sources?

Scholarly .edu .gov Popular .com .org

A writer is studying golfers at his local golf course, and whether their self-talk—how they speak or think to themselves about their performance and abilities—has a measurable effect on their performance. As part of his research, he looks at other scholars' analyses of athletes' "self-talk" in scholarly journals of psychology. He also designs a survey that he distributes to twenty local golfers to gather his own set of data. The journals he consults are considered secondary sources, and his survey results are considered a primary source.

True

A student is writing an analysis of millennials' views on gun control. He searches Twitter for tweets from millennials that contain #guncontrol and cites the tweets he finds to support his argument. Are the tweets considered a primary source or a secondary source?

Primary source

A writer uses both primary sources and secondary sources in her research project on the issue of food insecurity in her local community. Based on her topic, which of the following types of sources would be considered primary, and which would be considered secondary?

Primary interviews with neighbors who have experienced food insecurity the charter for her community's food pantry Secondary a scholarly article that describes previous research on food insecurity

Which of the following statements can a writer reasonably assume from this page of search results on alternative energy generated using the metasearch engine Yippy?

Reasonable assumption There are millions of websites that contain the words alternative and energy. Unreasonable assumption The first websites listed in this search are the best ones. The URL ending .com in the fourth search result, from www.renewableenergyworld.com, indicates that the website is a credible one.

A writer wants to learn about the writing processes college students use in their classes by studying her peers' experiences. What are some recommended strategies she could use to conduct her own field research on this topic?

Recommended The writer decides to add some examples of specific first-person experiences into her discussion. The writer comes up with thoughtful, open-ended questions based on her research questions in advance, and then uses them as the basis of interviews with her fellow students. Not recommended The writer thinks it might be fun to post a survey on Facebook and see what responses she gets, so she writes a few questions quickly and posts them. The writer interviews some peers about their experiences with writing processes using a few quick yes or no questions she wrote during class.

Which of the following titles is likely to belong to a scholarly source? Which is likely to belong to a popular source?

Scholarly "Increases in Acute Hepatitis C Virus Infection Related to a Growing Opioid Epidemic and Associated Injection Drug Use, United States, 2004 to 2014" "The Surge of Opioid Use, Addiction, and Overdoses: Responsibility and Response of the US Health Care System" Popular "The Obamacare Quirk That Is Fueling the Opioid Epidemic" "The Family That Built an Empire of Pain"

Database searching requires flexibility and patience, both in the words you use and in the methods you try. Which of the following search words or combinations would be more likely to be useful for a library database search?

Useful "opioid epidemic" AND "pain management" "opioid addiction" OR "opioid dependent" OR "opioid use disorder" opioids AND pharmaceutical Not as useful opioid addiction, opioid dependent, opioid use disorder What are treatments for opioid addiction? opoid epidemic opioids affect pregnancies how

"Watch a video of a speaker presenting on how to cultivate creativity in children. Write a response to the speaker's discussion, incorporating relevant source material and personal experiences from your own childhood or observations of others."

Useful Write down ideas and possible research questions and then meet with a research librarian to discuss the best types of sources, search terms, and databases. Search a few library databases using various keywords about creativity and children to get different types of results. Not as useful Type the title of the video into an internet search engine and use the first few articles that appear.

Which steps of the research process are likely to be most useful?

Useful writing down questions about your research and then meeting with a research librarian using basic internet searches to get a sense of the conversation surrounding your research question searching for your topic on Wikipedia and looking for relevant sources in the bibliography using internet searches to brainstorm different types of keywords to use in library database searches searching a library database using various keywords to get different types of results Not as useful citing information from the first few articles you find in an internet search.

You should start by thinking about your _______. You should then decide ______ and how you'll reach the target audience. You should write questions that require ________. You should write _________ that explains the survey's purpose. You should also ________ on several people.

research question whom you'll send the survey to specific answers an introduction test the questions

A Google search for newspaper articles on a topic such as immigration can provide only recent news on that topic.

False

A writer is planning to do a research project on the topic of water management, and she finds a book called Thirsty Planet: Strategies for Sustainable Water Management on Amazon that she wants to look through for ideas. She goes to her college's library, but the library does not have the book on its shelves. Her only option is to buy the book herself.

False

A writer wants to find a book on pediatric nutrition, and he decides to search the library catalog. He can search by author, title, subject, or keyword. If he types pediatric nutrition into the keyword option, he should expect that the search will find only the books that have those keywords in their titles.

False

An article in a publication such as The Atlantic, Time, or Fortune would most likely be considered a scholarly source.

False

A writer is working on a research project about long-term alcohol abuse. He plans to collect information about and analyze the effects of long-term alcohol abuse on alcoholics' family members, with the goal of presenting strategies that family members can use to help deal with these effects.

/Primary Primary the writer's interviews with family members of alcoholics a credible website with testimonials from family members of alcoholics a brochure from a therapy facility for addiction Secondary a magazine article about the history of alcoholism

A writer wants to research clean technology and starts by going to Wikipedia. Which of the following are acceptable ways to use Wikipedia as part of the research process?

Acceptable reading through the Wikipedia information to get familiar with the topic, and then following up on areas of interest with further research on the internet and in the library looking at the References section at the bottom of the Wikipedia page and following the links to the original articles listed there Not acceptable reading through the Wikipedia information to get familiar with the topic, and then including some of the material in the research paper reading through the Wikipedia information to get familiar with the topic and citing useful ideas or quotes

Many government agencies and departments maintain websites where writers can find government reports, statistics, legislative information, and other resources. USA.gov and other affiliated websites offer resources from the US government. On this American FactFinder data search platform from Census.gov, which of the following can you search for? Click or tap on the image at right to enlarge it.

Can search for population 2000 Census data race household age Cannot search for religion

Are the following strategies likely to narrow or expand a search?

Expand adding OR to a search Narrow using an "All of these words" advanced search filtering results for certain domains filtering results for a particular range of dates

A writer is searching for articles about gun control in a library database system. Which strategies would expand the writer's search? Which would narrow it?

Expand search using OR: gun control OR firearm regulation Narrow search using a more specific search term: for example, concealed carry filtering results for full-text articles using NOT: gun control NOT mental illness

If you are good at talking to people, you don't need to prepare before doing interviews or surveys.

False

A writer is planning to interview college students regarding cell phone use. He wants to have a mix of open-ended questions and questions that require specific, succinct answers. Categorize the questions he has so far.

Open-ended questions What would be hard about not using your phone? What kinds of things do you use your phone for? Questions requiring specific answers How much time do you spend on your phone in an average hour? Do you sleep with your phone beside you? How many texts on average do you send in a day?

A writer is beginning a research project on strategies that elementary school teachers can use to help their students learn to cope with stress. Which of the following potential sources for this project are most likely primary sources, and which are most likely secondary sources?

Primary an online lesson plan about stress-reduction techniques created by a teacher a radio interview of a school psychologist discussing stress in schools responses to a student questionnaire about stress levels, created by the writer Secondary

A student is assigned a research project about objectification in advertising. First, she reads a scholarly journal article that discusses various kinds of objectification in advertising. She then analyzes the ads from a publication of her choice and interviews members of the publication's target audience to gauge their reactions to the ads. Her final product will be an essay analyzing the examples she finds based on the essay she read and the reactions of the target audience.

Primary interviews with members of the publication's target audience the advertisements being analyzed by the student Secondary the scholarly journal article

A writer is doing some research for a project about the best treatments currently available for people with opioid addictions. Which of the sources below are primary and which are secondary?

Primary an interview the writer conducts with a nurse from a local hospital a case study of an opioid addiction treatment center a government website that provides statistics about opioids Secondary an online Time magazine article discussing opioid addiction

When you conduct an interview, there are often tasks that need to be done before, during, and after the process. Categorize these interview tasks in terms of when they should be done.

Before Write out interview questions. Contact the subject to request an interview. During Take notes. Note the full name of the person and the date, time, and place of the interview, as well as relevant demographic and background information. After Send a thank-you note or email. Flesh out your notes.