Summary Ch5

Sources are the main building blocks of a research paper. Without sources there isn't a way to research a topic in the first place. The only problem with just any source is that not all are reliable. Many sources like scholarly articles and published books can be very helpful, honest, and truthful which are great backing for a research paper. The hard part is sifting through all of the biased and opinionated blogs and non-evaluated articles like seen in newspapers, magazines, and most web searches. The key is to evaluate each source to see what it's effectiveness is. Questions to ask are, is enough evidence offered? Is the right kind of evidence offered? Is the evidence used ethically? Is the evidence convincing? And is the source of the evidence provided? The source itself should always be evaluated but researching credibility on the author is also a great cautionary step to take. If I was researching facts in the effectiveness of animal trials (such as using mice) for human advancement; Hopefully my source's author would be a credible scientist that has many benefactors to offer, and not some outraged PETA blogger. Maybe if I were looking for personal counter arguments and opinions that back the arguments, PETA might be my best bet; As for the credible facts, a contributing scientist should be my go to source.

Sources and authors should definitely be evaluated, but it doesn't hurt to continue the credibility investigation with the publisher, timeliness, genre, and comprehensiveness too. These can be evaluated in a similar manner too. Electronic sources and field sources should be evaluated in a slightly different manner but can be resourceful nonetheless (example: web source's domain should be examined such as .edu, .com, .gov, etc.)

Summary Ch2

So far we've gone through a bit of exploration and brainstorming to mold together multiple ideas. Now there is a spread sheet of multiple ideas upon one topic but there is no way to bring them all together for a research paper, and there are a few reasons for that. Research papers can't put every shred of information and argument into a paper. Taking a stand on a argument only makes the researcher more passionate about his subject which will then get his readers attentions even more. Acknowledging the other side of an argument and how it may affect your reasoning is another thing but diving into both sides is too broad when the research should be narrowed down. Narrowing down is the next step of finding the main topic of the research paper. Finding central concepts repeated, finding broad themes discussed, finding disagreements, and finding recurring voices in your sources are all ways to get the researchers attention to make a specific decision on what your research will be.

All of this research should be backed by trustworthy sources if you are looking for a stance or facts in an argument. Sources such as scholarly journals and published books. They have to go through a lengthy editorial process before they can be published and picked up and read by others. Looking for opinions and biased truths can also help an argument or stance but they cannot build an argument alone. Articles such as these can be found in magazines, newspapers, and web articles/blogs. Those are just a few of the places that sources can be found.

Summary Ch1

The Bedford Researcher seems like a great tool to use if one needed help or direction towards writing a research paper. Not only does it explain how, but it uses specific helpful steps and starts from the beginning. Chapter 1 of the Bedford Researcher is all about getting started and how to grasp and understand the research writing process and learning how to work with sources. The main focus and overall idea is how to grasp the readers attention. Although not everyone will be interested in the topic that the author might be delving into, but you want to attract a certain type of people while also making others curious enough to continue reading. But before grasping others attention, the researcher must first understand what he writing about, and to understand the topic in it's entirety. A great way of getting started is simply brainstorming and using techniques such as freewriting, looping, and clustering.