Googling: Limit yourself to about 15 minutes of unsuccessful Googling before giving up the hunt. Try the library or a database, or consider altering your topic/thesis. The Internet simply doesn't have everything.
Scholarly sites: Your research source must be academically up to par, reliable, and reputable. Often, this will mean an "edu" suffix in the web address. Find the author, poster, sponsor, or publisher. Go to the home page. Minimize the http. Look for universities, scholarly institutes, PhD's, etc. In film, look for film institutes or critics who discuss the literary value of films.
Commercial sites: These are not scholarly. They are for making money. They generally represent the consensus of opinion on a topic and offer nothing new or special. Some teachers will bar these sites from serious research assignments: Sparknotes, enotes, Bookrags, etc. Beware of sites with a lot of ads or with information for purchase -- this excludes subscriptions to scholarly journals of course.
Unreliable sites: blogs, forums, consumer reviews, anything written by Joe Public, or Wikipedia - which is just a public domain encyclopedia.
Databases: Go through your school or library. Nearly everything you find there will be of acceptable quality.
Documentation: Don't forget the web address and date of access. Some sites, including databases, will provide doc form for you. Use an MLA guide.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment