After finishing 9 annotated bibliographies and source paper, a day in the library was warmly welcomed. The librarians are always very friendly and eager to help our class and show us the next steps in the research process.
Yesterday we talked about peer reviewed sources. Peer reviewed sources can be very reliable as they are typically looked over by peers and the editor. That means that they have to pass at least 2 checks before they can be published in a specific journal. Even if a source isn’t rejected, it often requires some editing before it can move onto the next step. This process can take weeks, months, or even years to complete depending on the project. Highly renowned journals tend to have a greater rate of rejections since they are looking for the best research and writing possible.
In order to give credit to these very valuable sources, it is important to properly introduce them when incorporating them into your research paper. You wouldn’t jump into a deep conversation without introducing yourself and providing some background information first, so you shouldn’t do that in your writing either. First, start out by looking up some information on the author. Sometimes this information can be found in the article itself. Be careful about Googling the author; it might be hard to tell which John Smith is the John Smith who wrote your article. Next look at the publisher. This provides some background information on where that piece is coming from. Now you’re ready to introduce your source in your paper!
Let’s think it through: JK Rowling, who won the British Children’s Book of the Year award, said in her book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, “It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
Congrats on learning how to introduce a source!