Introduction
Information is everywhere these days, and you don’t have to look too hard to find it: 24-hour news channels, millions of Web sites, searchable databases, online journals and magazine articles, and of course books (more of them being published on more topics than ever before).
The key to succeeding in this information era is to harness the power of information through effective, thorough research.
What is research?
When you do research, you learn more about a subject by exploring existing knowledge, such as books, magazine articles, journal articles, and online databases, which are all examples of secondary sources. In order to use primary sources, you have to use documents such as letters and diaries that were created at the time when the event you’re researching occurred.
There are two different types of informational source for a research paper: primary sources and secondary sources.
Most of the sources you use are going to do is considered secondary sources, so let’s begin there.
Source: Librarian with Books, Microsoft Office Clip Art
Secondary sources are called secondary because someone other than you has made the observations, done the experiments, conducted the interviews, or conducted the surveys. Gathering secondary sources involves reading books, articles, and Web sites about your topic. Most of the sources you use will be considered secondary sources.
To use primary sources, you gather information about a subject by conducting surveys or interviews, or by recording your observations about the world around you. For example, if you were writing about trucking you might ask a professional truck driver about the details of his job. You could then include information from his answers in the report to inform your readers about the world of trucking. If you did that, you would be using a primary source.
Source: Beakers, Microsoft Office Clip Art
In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to plan your research, find primary and secondary sources, and use those sources in your research papers.