After a long period of HSPA testing, we all survived and made it to English class today. The main topic on today's agenda was research for our term papers. Before we began, we reviewed the three different types of sources, namely popular, substantive, and scholarly/professional. Mr. Lazarow stressed that although we will focus on professional sources for our research, it's okay to use popular sources as well; especially if you're researching popular culture.
After discussing literary sources, we began discussing computer sources. Though the computer is a valuable tool for doing research, it can be dangerous if the information it supplies isn't verifiable. Mr. Lazarow filled us in on the three main rules to follow when using the computer to gather source material.
Rules for Computer Sources:
- Any information found on the computer must have a bibliography to be considered a scholarly source.
- Most encyclopedias only give general surface information and are therefore largely not useful for our purposes.
- Consider source material on a case-by-case basis.
We were also reminded that we should maintain a variety between literary and computer sources. A warning to all those "i take the path of least resistance" people out there: "DON'T TAKE THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE! IT WILL ONLY HURT YOU DOWN THE ROAD! GET GOOD SOURCES THE FIRST TIME AROUND!"
In addition, we learned about how we will organize our source material note cards. We are required to find 20 sources that are separate and distinct from one another. Each of these sources will be recorded on a 3x5 note card. On the note card, the location, slug letter, MLA format, and "worthy of note" note will be written. On the back of every card will be the NAME of the person doing the research. (aka YOU)
good luck on HSPA's tomorrow! (although I'm sure you won't need it!)
:)
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