Essay Writing

When writing a research paper (or an essay with citations) you must choose reliable sources for your information, or your paper will not be very good and your professor will not give you a good grade. It is best to start with good sources than have your instructor say, “These sources aren’t acceptable” and then have to look up your info all over again.

There are two kinds of research papers, analytical, which looks at all information equally (”The effects of sugar on the body”), and persuasive, where the author tries to persuade the audience of some set of facts that are debatable (”Sugar is harmful to the body”). The best way to write either paper is by using actual and current facts. Here are some things to look for when deciding if you can use a source:

1. There should be an author or some type entity responsible for this information. If there is no author listed, or there is no copyright information, you shouldn’t use the information because you have no idea where it came from. Even if you think the info is OK, your instructor probably won’t.

2. The writing should be clear and shouldn’t have typos or grammatical errors. The page should also look somewhat professional. You should be able to quote the source in your paper. For example, “Sugar is super bad for you cause it makes your face break out a whole bunch.” wouldn’t be taken seriously.

3. Try to find sources that are unbiased. Commercial sites (.com) are less reliable than government (.gov) and educational (.edu) sites. Think about it this way, sugarcereal.com is going to have a different attitude towards the effects of sugar on the body than the Food and Drug Administration. If you do use a biased source, make sure the rest of your sources lean the other way or are not biased.

4. A little info about “.org” sites: when I first started researching, someone told me “.org” sites were reliable. Most of the time, I would say this is true. However, .org means that the site is founded by an organization. Organizations always have an agenda, so they are biased. This is OK, because even the best sources are usually biased a little. This brings us to the next point

5. Make sure you have a variety of sources. The point of research is to take information from many sources, and pull it together to create an original document. Even if you are writing a persuasive research paper, you will be more persuasive if your information comes from different places. The same goes for analytical papers. Try to find books, journal articles, websites (.gov, .org, or .edu) that all have a different perspective of your topic.

Remember: If the information you find from a source is true, but it is a “bad” source, you should be able to find the information somewhere else.

Source : http://melissamaxwellwf.googlepages.com/choosingappropriatesources