Source Triage: Filtering Sources :
Source Triage: Filtering Sources Excellent Sources
High quality AND relevance to your topic
Adds background, perspective or supports thesis
Marginal Sources
Add some useful perspective
Somewhat relevant to your topic
Uninteresting Sources
Dubious content or author qualifications
Lack of direct relevance to your topic
Dominant Resources :
Dominant Resources Comprehensive: background AND perspective
Often well-researched secondary sources
Reference multiple primary sources
Use ONE or TWO sources of this type
Processing Dominant Resources:
Read these sources FIRST
Review them in depth
Use references and ideas to parse other sources
Supporting Sources :
Supporting Sources Provide supporting detail and confirmation
Often . . .
cited by a dominant source
focused on a subset of issues
include unique perspective
Not necessarily comprehensive (e.g., article)
Require more selective parsing (filtering)
Validating Supporting Sources :
Validating Supporting Sources Determine relevance:
Read overview on cover
Browse table of contents
Read preface or introduction
Read conclusion
Focus only on relevant parts
Skim initial paragraphs to confirm usefulness
Thoroughly read only sections relevant to topic
Your Research Paper :
Your Research Paper At least FOUR quality published sources
At least ONE printed source from hard copy
At least ONE self-collected source
Survey(s) or Interview(s)
Any number of additional sources may be used
Each source must be parenthetically cited
Electronic sources must be validated:
Located using scholar.google.com or EBSCO
Independently validated per validation rules
Teacher’s approval required