UGS 302: Visionary Women / Beck

For your final project, you need to create a bibliography of 8 sources. 5 of those sources are ones you will use as evidence in your papers. 3 of those sources are sources you will not use because they are biased or misleading (sources you found that you will critique in an annotated bibliography). We will take a look at some articles and talk about why they may or may not serve as reliable evidence. Then we will talk about search strategies.

Here is a synthesis of some points I couldn't cover in our session. All in all, if you are at all confused in your research - ask me! Using libraries and navigating the use of sources is a lifelong journey and no one expects you to master it your first year. So build in time to talk to a librarian about your research into every project in every course every semester :)

• When you're talking about crafting a research paper - paragraphs, how to use quotations, organizing your thoughts and evidence, that's more a writing center thing. Get thee to a writing consult!
• How much evidence do I need, what kind of evidence do I need?
  • Once you start exploring, you will start to see major themes or controversies you want to elevate in your paper. Make an outline (which you can do in NOODLETOOOLS) to map out what you might want to say based on this research. Now, look and see where you have evidence to back up claims. Where do you need more evidence? Where might your original ideas be forming?
  • Different kinds of evidence support in different ways:
    • Stories and interviews from magazines, etc. can add a personal touch or experience.
    • Decide when you want to analyze a primary source yourself, or when you want to consult another expert. Think about analyzing a variety of primary sources - a poem or other creative work? Historical documents like newspapers or diaries or photos?
      • (ask a librarian about digital archives we have for you to use in this class and beyond)
    • Does data play a role here? As a librarian if you're interested in historical data/statistics.
    • Scholars in literature and history analyze primary sources, usually a few at a time which they then synthesize into a discussion. This is a great source type to include when you want to show your readers what the scholarly conversation is around your topic.
• Books! A lot of you had more questions about books than I expected. Warms my heart. I added a page at left for navigating our collections.