Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill [184]
Keep in mind that your aim is not to arrive at your opinion of the sources, but to construct the conversation you think the author of one of your sources might have with the author of another. How might they recast each other’s ideas, as opposed to merely agreeing or disagreeing with those ideas? It’s useful to confine yourself to thinking as impartially as you can about the ideas found in your two sources.
2. Use Passage-Based Focused Freewriting to Converse with Sources. Select a passage from a secondary source that appears important to your evolving thinking about a subject you are studying, and do a passage-based focused freewrite on it. You might choose the passage in answer to the question “What is the one passage in the source that I need to discuss, that poses a question or a problem or that seems, in some way difficult to pin down, anomalous or even just unclear?” Copy the passage at the top of the page, and write without stopping for 20 minutes or more. As noted in the discussion of freewriting in Chapter 4, paraphrase key terms as you relentlessly ask “So what?” about the details.
3. Use a Source as a Lens on Another Source. Apply a brief passage from a secondary source to a brief passage from a primary source, using the passage from the secondary source as a lens. Choose the secondary source passage first—one that you find particularly interesting, revealing, or problematic. Then locate a corresponding passage from the primary source to which the sentence from the first passage can be connected in some way. Copy both passages at the top of the page, and then write for 20 minutes. You should probably include paraphrases of key phrases in both—not just the primary text—but your primary goal is to think about the two together, to allow them to interact.
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Chapter 14
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Finding, Citing, and Integrating Sources
THIS CHAPTER SHIFTS ATTENTIONS to more technical matters associated with writing the researched paper. More than just mechanically gathering information, research continues to be a primary means of discovering the ongoing conflicts about a subject and having ideas about it. Engaging the information sparks thinking—not just arranging.
THIS CHAPTER IS DIVIDED INTO FIVE SECTIONS
A. Research Methods
B. Plagiarism and the Logic of Citation
C. Citing Sources: Four Documentation Styles
D. Integrating Quotations Into Your Paper
E. Preparing an Abstract
The core of this chapter is a discussion of research methods written by a reference librarian at our college, Kelly Cannon. It offers a wealth of insider’s tips for making more productive use of your research time.
A. A Guided Tour of Research Methods by Reference Librarian Kelly Cannon
THREE RULES OF THUMB FOR GETTING STARTED
A half-hour spent with a reference librarian can save you half a day wandering randomly through the stacks selecting sources.
Start your research in the present and work backward. Usually the most current materials include bibliographical citations that can help you identify the most important sources in the past. Along the same lines, you are usually better off starting with journal articles rather than books because articles are more current.
Consistently evaluate the reliability of the source, looking for its potential bias or agenda. Evidence is always qualified by how it is framed. For example, Newsweek can be a useful source if you want evidence about popular understanding of a subject or issue. The fact that the material comes from Newsweek and thus represents a position aimed at a mainstream, nonacademic audience provides the central reason for citing it.
The challenge of doing research in the Information Age is that there is so much information available. How do you know which information is considered authoritative in a particular discipline and which isn’t? How can you avoid wasting time with source materials that have been effectively refuted and replaced by subsequent thinking? A short answer to these questions is that you should start in the reference room of your library or