Ch 6 Sources

Mariah McCurry

In Evaluation and Choosing Sources, I learned how to locate and preview sources, how to differentiate between general versus specialized academic and primary versus secondary, and how to evaluate the most optimal sources for my own research project. The first thing I realized after this chapter is that you do not have to dive into the specialized academic sources right away; for instance, one can view general sources to get an idea about certain topics and subtopics and then move on to specialized sources for once one possesses a general foundation for their topic. I think this is really helpful to know because most specialized academic sources may be difficult to understand without much prior knowledge, especially for someone, like myself, who does not read these types of sources often other than textbooks for class. I also like the idea of finding more sources through the Works Cited list within the specialized academic source.

In a similar sense, resources can be categorized by primary, secondary, and tertiary source. A tertiary source has a similar purpose of a general source; that is that a tertiary source can help one get an overall sense of a topic. Unlike a tertiary source, a primary source will benefit someone who is in search for original artifacts that have not been analyses by others.  Another very helpful tip is to preview your source critically. It is important that the rhetorical situation and genre apply to your research topic and question. When reviewing sources, check to see if the articles are peer-reviewed, if editors are scholars, and how much credibility the author conveys. Overall, the main goal in researching is to assure the information you are finding does not only apply to your research topic and that the sources are trustworthy.