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Mini-Capstone 2011

Levels of Research

Encyclopedias, Wikipedia, journalistic articles published in magazines, newspapers, or online news agencies, or any other source that basically summarizes the findings of secondary sources of research and is geared towards a popular audience.

Tertiary Sources

Do you have to cite these? If you borrow someone else’s words, of

course you do. If you’re putting an idea/fact found in

more than five tertiary sources into your own words, it’s considered “Common Knowledge” and doesn’t need to be cited.

Be on the safe side – if you have to look something up to verify it, you should cite it.

Tertiary Sources

Articles written by a credible author – This means that there is in fact an author, and that you can provide proof of that writer’s credentials, which you will include in the annotated bibliography entry. The article is published in a journal and communicates the author’s opinion or interpretation of another person’s research.

Secondary Sources

Books – Any publication date is acceptable here, as long as the source is relevant. Beware of “vanity publishing houses” – these are self-published books and are not professionally edited.

Secondary Source

Government documents - References to government documents vary in their required elements. In general, if you do not know the writer of the document, cite as author the government agency that issued it.

For example:New York State. Commission on Capital Punishment. Report of the Commission to Investigate and Report the Most Humane and Practical Method of Carrying Into Effect the Sentence of Death in Capital Cases. Albany: Troy Press, 1888.

Secondary Source

Most Professional Interviews – This would also require proof of the interviewee’s credentials/credibility in the Annotated Bibliography and the text of the essay.

For example:Purdue, Pete. Personal interview. 1 Dec. 2000.

Secondary Source

Original documents such as letters, diaries, legislative bills, laboratory studies, field research reports, or eye-witness accounts

Although a primary source is not necessarily more reliable than a secondary source, it has the advantage of being a firsthand account. Naturally, you can better evaluate what a secondary source says if you have first read any primary sources it discusses.

Primary Sources

Second Hand – Secondary Source

Secondary sources are commentaries on primary sources – another source’s opinions about or interpretation on primary sources.

Tertiary sources are summaries of secondary sources – they summarize other people’s opinions and interpretations, and are therefore far removed from the original research or historical event.

First Hand – Primary Source

“Hearsay”– Tertiary Source

For many assignments, you will be asked to use scholarly sources. These are written by experts for a knowledgeable audience and usually go into more depth than books and articles written for a general audience. (Scholarly sources are sometimes called refereed or peer-reviewed because the work is evaluated by experts in the field before publication.

Scholarly Sources – A Subset of Primary/Secondary

Formal language and presentation

Authors who are academics or scientists, not journalists

Footnotes or a bibliography documenting the works cited by the author of the source

Original research and interpretation rather than a summary of other people’s work (in fields of science or social science)

Quotations from and analysis of primary sources (in humanities disciplines such as literature, history, and philosophy)

A description of research methods or a review of related research (in the sciences and social sciences)

Scholarly Sources – Common Characteristics

The importance of currency in regards to a scholarly source is dependent upon your field of research. In research fields that experience a great deal of change and discovery (for example, cancer research or psychological treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder), it is vital that your research demonstrate an awareness of the most up-to-date information and dialogue going on as related to your topic. However, for other fields of research (particularly in the humanities), it is crucial that one demonstrate an awareness of significant contributions to academic discourse over a great number of years.

Currency of Scholarly Research

LIRN database at Maranatha’s library – includes Gale/Info Trac, ProQuest, and eLibrary information resources.

Shatford Library (@ PCC) online databases – includes ProQuest, SIRS Knowledge, Project Muse, JSTOR and many more resources that give access to thousands of journals.

Maranatha is one of PCC’s “feeder schools”, which means you can have access to their journals, as long as you bring your Maranatha Student ID card.

Peer Reviewed Journals–Where Do I Find Them?

 

To make sure your journal is peer-reviewed, follow these steps: 1. Write down the name of your journal. 2. Go to ebscohost.com 3. Click on the “Title Lists” tab. You will find an extensive, alphabetical

listing of “Title Lists”. 4. Click on the PDF version of one of the “Title Lists”. (Example: “Academic

Search Complete”) The PDF version of that list should open up. It will have all the Journal Titles in alphabetical order.

5. Find your journal on the list. 6. Scan over to the “Peer-Reviewed” column. If there is a Y in that column,

then you are good to go. If you cannot find your journal on that list, it is possible that it is included in another “Title List”. That means you should go back to the “Title Lists” page and repeat these steps with a different “Title List”. If you find your journal, but there is no Y in the “Peer-Reviewed” column, then that article does not qualify as a “Scholarly Source,” though it may be a legitimate Secondary Source.How do I know my journal is

actually Scholarly or Peer-reviewed?

A bibliography is an MLA formatted list of all the sources you read/consult in accomplishing your research (as opposed to a Works Cited page, which is just the works you actually quote from or cite in your essay)

Annotated just means the notes that you take as you summarize, assess, and reflect upon the source’s content.

What’s an Annotated Bibliography?

1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC ENTRY: This entry should perfectly adhere to MLA formatting (2009 guidelines are in your Patterns for College Writing textbook). If you use a bibliography generator (such as Easybib.com), it is still your responsibility to proofread your entry carefully.

Annotated Bibliography

2. SUMMARY: What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? YOU CANNOT COMPLETE THIS STEP BY MERELY READING AN ARTICLE’S “ABSTRACT” – That’s like playing the game of “telephone” as a kid – this needs to be your summary of the article, not a summary of a summary of an article!

Annotated Bibliography

3. ASSESSMENT: After summarizing a source, evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is it this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source? What makes this author a credible source? What are their qualifications that directly apply to the information that they are providing, making them an “expert” in this area?

Annotated Bibliography

4. REFLECTION: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Do you expect this source to be helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic? Does it point you to new questions, sources, angles from which you can examine your topic? Don’t be afraid to use first-person pronouns in this portion of the annotated – I’m asking you to reflect on how this source relates to YOUR research.

Annotated Bibliography

It is your responsibility to be certain that you fully comprehend what is expected of you as a scholar and writer. To utilize someone else’s words or ideas without giving proper credit is considered plagiarism. This goes beyond simply copying and pasting the wording from an article you have read without putting it in quotes or citing it (that would be an obvious case of plagiarism). MLA requires that if you paraphrase (put someone’s idea into your own words) you must fundamentally alter the sentence structure – you cannot simply use a thesaurus and substitute a few important words.

A Reminder About Plagiarism

Assignments turned in to Turnitin.com give you the opportunity to view your originality report, make changes in the document, then resubmit your paper. There’s no excuse for plagiarism, even when it’s accidental – take the time to double check your work before the due date.

Check Every Assignment for Inadvertent Plagiarism