2. Finding the Right Sources Dr. Steve Beatty

3. Types of Sources Primary Sources Secondary Sources Scholarly Sources

4. Primary Sources A first hand account. Grant wrote his Personal Memoirs to secure his family's future. In doing so, the Civil War's greatest general won himself a unique place in American letters. His character, sense of purpose, and simple compassion are evident throughout this deeply moving account, as well as in the letters to his wife, Julia, included here. "Perhaps the most revelatory autobiography of high command to exist in any language." —John Keegan

5. Primary Sources If you are researching the American Dream in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, then The Great Gatsby is a primary source.

6. Primary Sources Similarly, if you are researching quest films, then The Lord of the Rings is a primary source.

7. Secondary Sources An indirect account. If you are researching the leaders of the Revolutionary War, then a study of our “founding brothers” would be a secondary source.

8. Secondary Sources Similarly, a book about film noir would be a secondary source. However, a film noir such as the classic Double Indemnity would be a primary source.

9. Primary or Secondary? Which category would the Director’s Commentary to The Godfather fall into? Answer: Primary

10. Scholarly Source In academia, your professors will expect you to utilize scholarly sources in your papers. So what is a scholarly source?

11. Scholarly Source Newsweek? The New York Times? The Journal of Marketing? The Journal of Popular Culture? Ladies’ Home Journal?

12. Scholarly Sources The easiest way to identify a scholarly source is to see if they document their sources. For example, Newsweek does not include parenthetical documentation or a Work Cited after its articles. Why? Because it is written for a mass audience not a scholarly one.

13. Scholarly Source However, articles in the Journal of Marketing will have in-text documentation and a Bibliography. That’s because it is aimed at a scholarly audience and one of the things a scholarly audience looks for is whether the author has done their homework and consulted the proper authorities.

14. Scholary Sources? Newsweek? No. The New York Times? No. The Journal Of Marketing? Yes. The Journal of Popular Culture? Yes Ladies’ Home Journal? No.

15. Starting The Search Where are you going to search? What kind of sources are you looking for? What search terms are you going to use? Are you going to limit the search in any way?

16. Starting the Search Where? Use the library’s databases not just a general search engine such as google.

17. Starting the Search What kind of sources? Primary, Secondary, Scholarly

18. Starting the Search Search Terms Try different terms. “Senior Citizen Homes” might not be as effective as “Retirement Communities.”

19. Starting the Search You may want to limit the search to a specific time period or a specific journal, etc.

20. Troubleshooting your Search Your search yields no results. Try different search terms.

21. Troubleshooting your Search You found a great book, but it’s checked out. Recall it immediately.

22. Troubleshooting your Search You found a perfect source, but ASU doesn’t carry it. Use InterLibrary Loan.

23. Troubleshooting Your Source You’re just plain lost and need help. Use ASU’s Ask a Librarian Feature

24. Source Criteria Authority If you’re researching horror, the guy on the left is an authority on the subject.

25. Source Criteria In some cases, the authority might be an organization or governmental agency.

26. Source Criteria What if you don’t know who the authority is? Review the literature and see who is constantly cited.

27. Source Criteria Multiple Intelligences Search the lit and you’ll soon discover Howard Gardner is the authority.

28. Currency All things being equal, we would prefer the most current research. After all, we’ve learned a bit about DNA in the past decade.

29. Source Criteria However, authority trumps currency. You still probably should mention Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams if dream interpretation is your subject even though the book is over 100 years old.

30. Source Criteria Currency If you’re researching the Civil War, you’ll want some contemporary accounts as well as the most current research.

31. Objectivity In the 50s, cigarette companies sponsored studies that claimed smoking helped reduce tension and sore throats.

32. Source Criteria Of course that would never happen today... Can you say supplements?

33. Source Criteria Authority Currency Objectivity