Writing Lessons & Advice: Essay Help- Research Material
I got some wonderful kitchen gifts for my bridal shower! Among them were a fully-stocked, sixteen-jar spice rack and a Ninja Foodi grill. They were very thoughtful gifts, to be sure, but they felt like a little more than I knew what to do with at first, given my simplistic culinary style and experience. I mean, it's not every day I’m cooking something that calls for rosemary or air frying. But with a little time and exploration, my husband and I have put these things to better use.
I think researching has a similar kind of overwhelm. As discussed in other Essay Help posts, research projects can entail heavy critical thinking and expectations on writers who may have limited experience with the endeavors. More still, many sources one is to investigate for research projects often have a sophistication about them--academic sources aren’t necessarily written to entertain. If not that, finding useful sources feels insurmountable when so much is available or when ideas aren’t narrowed down just right.
While I hope the Lessons & Advice on researching prove useful to these points, I imagined a follow-up on research material could be helpful as well. Understanding the different types is another way to muddle through what suits the purpose of a research project. As the summations and examples are provided, I’ll try to illustrate the knowledge in action with the hypothetical thesis for the project related to cell phones, and computers: Current technology improves all aspects of life through its features of instant connection and communication, unique tools, and adaptability.
Here’s more about the different source materials:
Primary sources- offer direct accounts of an experience or event, often in first-person. Good examples would be from diaries, letters, speeches, photographs, literature, emails, or social media posts. Recorded events like the Apple conferences would make good primary sources.
Secondary sources- describe or analyze primary sources, like reviews, commentary, interpretations, or discussions. Ideal sources for this project would be media and/or biographical anecdotes about technology.
Tertiary sources- provide broad overviews, background, and/or condensed information on topics/ideas. They analyze and summarize primary and secondary sources. Encyclopedias, fact books, or textbooks would be sources like this, offering overviews of the development, inner workings, history, etc. of cell phones, computers, and any affiliated ideas or people.
Academic or scholarly sources- written and reviewed by experts in the field; they present and discuss research in particular academic, clinical, or scientific fields. Books and journals from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Press) could provide helpful academic sources. Others would be conference presentations, video lectures, and material from other scholarly publications. Most in print are often accessed through specialized search engines/tools like JSTOR, EBSCO, or Google Scholar.
Trade or professional sources- written explicitly for experts or those involved in a specific study/discipline/profession/industry; they’re specialized but not necessarily scholarly; they include up-to-date news, trends, developments in the field, information about government regulations, job opportunities, and education. PC Magazine or the AppleInsider Podcast should be helpful trade sources for this project.
Popular sources- convey either general or specific interests to a broad audience; their style is less formal than academic sources and less technical than trade/professional sources, but are still produced by journalists and professional writers. The articles and interviews Steve Jobs did with Time Magazine might be good popular sources for this project.
Wikipedia- Wikipedia (and its related outlets) is an amalgam of almost every source style but is not nearly as reliable. It has roots and elements of a tertiary reference--an encyclopedia, to be specific. Entries cite many references, like an academic source, and are written/created for specific and broad audiences alike. The disadvantage is in the fact that Wikipedia is a non-profit online community of user-generated content. The professionalism, integrity, and consistency of information are not fully guaranteed. Given its nature, even Wikipedia itself recommends using their site to only “get the general facts of a problem and to gather keywords, references and bibliographical pointers...but not as a source in itself.”
So in practice, one thing we could do with Wikipedia is use the sections for references, further reading, or external links on the pages about mobile phones and computers to find other worthwhile secondary, popular, trade, or possibly even academic sources.
Familiarity with the different research materials can help inform your search and choices in credible support of the project, just like how new recipes and cooking styles helped me connect with my kitchen gifts. Hopefully you have a better idea of what to expect and how to use research material at your disposal! Hope this is more help with your research endeavors too! Do not forget to appropriately cite sources and proofread where needed! If you need more Essay Help tips, check out these other posts:
If there’s a topic you want me to cover in the future, you’re welcome to reach out to me on the web chat features or socials!
sources/further reading
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