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ESL 924 Castello: Searching for Sources

Characteristics of a Source

What are examples of "sources" students use for research?

scholarly or academic books and journal articles (look for a works cited list or bibliography at the end) 

dictionaries and encyclopedias for background research

news and magazine articles - audience is general public

government information (reports, statistics)

research studies and surveys (sometimes on websites of non-profit orgs)

documentary videos and interviews with experts, expert testimony (See Databases: Find Videos tab on this guide!)

What are FIVE characteristics of great sources for an argumentative essay:

  • Credibility: Published by established institutions or authors with recognized expertise in the field. This includes professional researchers/staff writers creating content for academic article databases.
  • Objectivity: Presents information you can use as evidence for your argument that's based on facts and data, minimizing personal opinions or biases. 
  • Currency: Up-to-date information. 
  • Relevance: Directly related to the topic of your argumentative essay. 
  • Diverse perspectives: You will need sources that show the different sides of your issue (pro/con)

    What types of sources are best for a college-level argumentative paper?

  • Any sources with the five characteristics above.

  • Once you complete your ESL courses, you will increasingly be reading scholarly or academic books and journal articles

Where do you find Sources?

What are article databases?

A searchable collection of articles from thousands of scholarly journals and other sources. Libraries typically pay a licensing fee to publishers in order to give library users access to search for and download articles from a database.

Find all of the Library's databases on our Databases A-Z page! 

How do we search article databases vs searching Google?

Natural language vs Keyword searching

A natural language search is a search using regular spoken language, such as English. We use this type of search  when we talk to Siri, for example.

A keyword search finds the words or phrase you choose in any field of the article database. (You can also use a keyword search in Google or other search engines).