At this point, you should be familiar with the topic and are ready to dive in deeper to find answers to your research question and/or resources to support your thesis statement (and the various points in your argument). Before you take the keywords you've been listing, you should be conscious that there are many forms of information. Information found may have different purposes and logic.
Part of the research process is to identify the type of information that is appropriate for your audience and the topic. As this is an academic project, you are expected to use academic-level of information, or what we call scholarly sources. They are generally books published by university press and articles published in academic and professional journals. They typically go through a rigorous editorial process, known as peer-review.
Watch the videos embedded in this box for more information about the differences in information, the editorial process for scholarly information, ways to evaluate information, and identifying biases.
"And that brings us to tonight's word: Truthiness. Now I'm sure some of the word-police, the "wordanistas" over at Webster’s, are gonna say, "Hey, that's not a word!" Well, anybody who knows me knows that I am no fan of dictionaries or reference books. They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, what did or didn't happen...”
– Stephen Colbert
The chart below are points to consider when evaluating sources of information. Click on the CAPOW document icon to download the handout.
|
Currency
|
|
|
Authorship
|
|
|
Purpose
|
|
|
Objectivity
|
|
|
Writing Style
|
|
The address identifying a specific site on the Internet. In the United States, domain names usually consist of three parts separated by the period (full stop). In the address www.thisuniversity.edu, the first part (www) indicates the protocol or language used in accessing the address, the second part (.thisuniversity) represents the name of the institution or organization hosting the site, and the last part (.edu) is a top level domain code indicating type of entity serving as network host. For the United States, the six basic top level domain codes are:
| .com | Commercial enterprise |  |
| .edu | Educational institution |  |
| .gov | Government agency | |
| .mil | Military installation | |
| .net | Network (generally used by companies directly responsible for the internet's infrastructure) |  |
| .org | Nonprofit organization | |
| .uk | Example of a country code; from the United Kingdom | |
While domains are a good starting place, you still want to evaluate the information on the website. Other places to get hints for the purpose and objectivity of a website can be found:
Take a look at the websites below, would you use them in your research?
Created by Samantha Lee, Business Insider.
