Selecting Your Sources

Selecting credible sources for any research assignment can be a long and arduous process. The easiest thing to do is to Google a key word or phrase and search through the websites provided. However, this is not the best way to find reliable sources for your research, so avoid just relying on a simple Google search. If you do end up using this method for one or two sources, use sites that end in .org, .edu, and .gov. Government and educational websites are going to have more credible information that they have probably researched as well. The following are also a couple of websites to help you get started with your current research, but keep in mind that you have to have a minimum of 5 sources.

Internet Hotlist of American Decades

American Cultural History: The Twentieth Century

Using More than Websites for Sources

Today, it is easy to go on the web and think that just using a website is good enough for research. WRONG. Good research will contain multiple sources of information. Many of you used websites for sources last quarter. For this research assignment, you should use a variety of sources. So, what can you use other than websites?

Graphs

As you have probably seen in your math class, a graph can provide a lot of information.
Take a look at the bar graph on the left. What information can you gather from it?
News outlets use graphs all the time when talking about stories that cover elections and the economy. As a writer, you should be able to use them in a research paper or other types of writing to support what you are saying.
Like all resources though, graphs need to be analyzed for credibilty and bias. Some graphs can be misleading, so take a good look at them before using them as support.