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Writing Resistance – Fall 2020
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Discussion Form: “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats?” (DUE 9/18)
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Posted by Shamecca Harris on September 14, 2020 at 9:20 pmRead Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats
- URL: https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence/chapter/secondary-sources-in-their-natural-habitats/
Post your response to the assigned reading (100-150 words) on the group discussion forum here. See discussion question(s) below.
- Discussion Question(s): What is one idea from the text that interests or confuses you? Why? After reading this text, what strategies might you use to write your Source-Based Essay?
- To post your response, reply to the discussion forum here.
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One interesting idea in the text is how it differentiates the reliability of sources. It implements a tier system and explains why various types of sources are considered trustworthy or not. For example, tier 1 sources are peer-reviewed academic publications in comparison to tier 4 sources which are agenda-driven or uncertain pieces. A good source would include strong evidence for claims and reference other highly credible sources whereas a weak source would probably be mostly opinionated and might be untrustworthy. The strategies I might utilize in writing my essay would be to find a good source that relates to what I think about my topic and would avoid sources that seem to be opinionated and untrustworthy.
After reading, “Secondary sources in their Natural Habitats” one idea that interests me is how to determine the trustworthiness of the source. It explains the differences between primary and secondary sources. There are so many sources that might be better than the other source, and this article helps us to determine the best source that is reliable. This article suggests that a good article will include references, data to support the claim, strong pieces of evidence. On the other hand, a non-reliable source may explain and justify the research question rather than provide the database. The strategies I might use is to use a primary source that is more reliable rather than uses secondary sources. If I use secondary sources such as a newspaper article, I might need to verify that it might use proper evidence, database. This strategy will help me to find a trustworthy source for my essay.
I was very interested in the way the author of “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats?” explained how to break down the scholarly sources. Research and survey data has been intimidating to me while reading academic articles filled with technical terms and what Amy called “the intricacies of log-linear modeling of quantitative survey data.” This piece was helpful in reassuring me that its common to not comprehend the detailed data fully, but that the important part is knowing the information provided is sound and reliable and to focus on the findings and “their significance in plainer language.” I also appreciated the way it was explained that using appropriate words for searching will produce the credible results you seek as well as noting that you can often find other relevant works by using the works cited of an article. I will definitely be referencing her explanation of the searching sources in terms of “tiers” as I locate the works for my Source based Essay this week.
The text “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats?” explains how to find reliable sources and the differences between the non-reliable ones. An idea that interests me is that the author conveys information about looking at reliable secondary sources and where to find them. This idea really helped a lot when we are writing an essay that focuses on the analysis and reliability of the other sources and authors. Next, some of the strategies that I will be using in my source-based essay will cover the ideas of looking pages and websites the author recommended us and the intention of figuring out if the references I will be using are credible and connected to my topic.
In the text “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats”, I was interested in how the author broke down the best resources that someone can use for their research paper. They broke it down by tiers, Tier 1 being the best one and Tier 4 being the one you would want to avoid using in your writings. I’m still not too familiar with the difference between primary and secondary sources because they said that in some cases a primary source can count as a secondary one and vice versa. For my paper, I will try to use “tier 1” sources because they are the most credible being written by scholars and professionals in the field that I am researching. I will try my best to find resources that provide me with enough facts to help my writing flow.
After reading, “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats“, I thought it was really interesting that they separated the types of sources into 4 different tiers based on their credibility. Furthermore, I was able to learn and finally understand why Wikipedia was always frowned upon as a type of source. I also discovered that there is a long, meticulous process to have a manuscript published as scholarly journals and it is mainly because of peer review, and that is the reason why it is categorized under tier 1. The strategies that I would consider using is to use the database to find my sources because it would make my life easier when researching my source-based essay. Furthermore, I would also use the tip of, reading one article to find other sources. This would reassure me in finding the sources that I would need.
After having read “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats”, an idea that interests me is having to be creative when selecting our sources to use for a research paper. We must understand the various types of sources there are as well as their credibility and stance in the subject they are about . The article provides us with tiers of sources that we should be including in our papers as well as tiers of sources that we should avoid having such as Wikipedia. In order to select the correct sources for my papers, I must ask myself several questions and be able to analyze each source efficiently to ensure it will be essential towards my subject. Although I don’t have to completely understand every aspect of the source that I am using, I should be able to draw out the necessary information or statistics that pertain to my paper.
I think that this text conveys information that makes it incredibly easy to understand the range of sources because of the fact that its writers implemented a tier system to reference the validity of various sources. This interests me because it definitely helps with keeping a clear idea of the strength of different sources and their applicability in whatever you are doing, though specifically regarding research papers. Knowing this will help me strategize what sources would be more applicable to the work that I am doing. For instance if it is a scientific research paper it might be silly to look at sources that are not peer-reviewed and scholarly studies.
After reading the “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats”, I have been knowledgeable about different tables of information to where to look for legitimate primary sources and secondary sources. For instance, Short pieces from newspapers or credible websites, Peer-reviewed academic publications at Google Scholar, library catalogs, and academic article databases, etc. I was also confused about where to find academic publications, and how to know when it is an academic piece, but the author provides an understandable and focused answer to my question about that, so now I know that an academic publication is often a piece from large projects that is edited by multiple authors and has numerous elevations by different people. I also learned about short pieces with factual analysis, which is something that interests me because it is an important fact and plays a huge role in the paper because sometimes it can be used as evidence for your analysis that strengthens your ideas and thoughts.
While reading the article, I especially appreciated the author’s use of lists and charts within the text. The article was very well organized which made it much easier to navigate and to understand. I found the section in which the author goes over how to find and analyze sources very helpful. The writer lists five bullets and goes into detail on each one which assists the reader. Another part of the writing which I found interesting was the section on how to effectively use Google Scholar. As a student, I know this website is something I will have to use for many assignments and the writer’s tips were very useful. I appreciated this article and found it very helpful for my next assignment and for any future assignments.
One of the ideas that really interested me after reading “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats?” was the different types of hierarchy they each provide for distinguishing the credibility of sources using different types of hierarchy. How to properly use and find primary and secondary sources is a very critical step for a paper. When we choose sources for a paper, we need to know how credible it is, for example Wikipedia is not suitable to be used as a secondary source, we can usually look for the position we want to express in an academic paper or in a newspaper because these sources are very credible, although there is a lot of terminology in academic articles that we don’t understand, we can use it as long as it is within the scope of the topic of the paper we are researching, because the terminology or factual evidence can enhance the credibility of our paper.
The article “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats” breaks down different types of sources and groups them into four tiers from being the most to least reliable. What I found most interesting was how this author described how these tiers related to one another, such as how a tier two source might reference a tier one source. I saw this connection as the tier one source being the purest, then going down the list, the information became increasingly muddled with opinions. However, due to this interconnectedness, I’m also able to go up the tier list by going to the references of an article and following its trail as the author suggested. They also suggested starting with a google search to cast a wide net, then pick out keywords that may be useful in an academic database. I found this to be a very helpful starting point and direction.
After reading: “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats,” I feel I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about gathering sources. One idea that stuck with me was not having to read the potential sources completely, especially at first glance. In the past, I spent most of my time trying to find sources and ended up reading things I couldn’t use. This article states that one should never have to read a source all the way through to find it doesn’t fit the paper. The advice the article gives is to skim the potential sources for what one is looking for. For instance, a graph or specific statistics.
I also love that the article included numerous resources for finding top tier sources as well as links to work cited generations and guidelines. I will be using the latter because those are basic points to accumulate.The article “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats” discusses various sources and provides a system of levels, 1-4, which measure the reliability of them. Tier 1 features peer-reviewed academic publications that provide high-quality research and evidence. Tier 2 features reports from credible non-academic resources such as .gov and.org sites. Tier 3 features short news stories from newspapers or credible websites that simply reports on an event. Tier 4 features agenda-driven pieces which are mostly opinionated and may not be particularly credible. I appreciated the thorough breakdown of the sources, as it was clear and concise and will help me on future essays. The vast expanse of the internet offers us infinite resources to pull information from, but it is up to us to use our educated judgement to separate good sources from bad. What I found interesting in the text was the tier system and how each tier had some relation to the other. I found it interesting the two middle tiers pulled sources from the tier above them and how tier 4 was just in its own league of non-credibility.
Regarding my Source-Based Essay, I will definitely refer to this article when scouting and investigating my sources. The last thing I want to do when writing my essay is back up my thesis using non-credible sources.
In the text “Secondary Sources in Their Natural Habitats.” The author proportionates a broader view of what looking for a good source is. While reading, I questioned the importance of looking for a reliable and useful reference for my essay and confused about how to classify my sources as primary and secondary sources. Looking and picking the best source for my writing is vital for my writing development and fluency because it would create a basis of trustworthiness for my paper. Providing an excellent peer-reviewed academic publication would give my paper a strong foundation and proportionate credibility. One strategy that I definitely would use is to focus on how rigorous the research and analysis are and how strong the author provides their evidence and references. While reading, I would try not to focus on what I don’t understand in the text. Instead, I would focus my attention on the author’s claim and what he intends while writing.
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