You must chose a wide variety of research materials when gathering preliminary research. Not only should you direct yourself towards more scholarly types of materials like professional magazines and journals, but also popular magazines, books, and online sources for a diverse array of preliminary sources. The following paragraphs briefly review some general types of sources and explains the pros and cons of using each type of source.
Traditional Books
Books
often contain a wealth of in-depth information and may be useful in research.
Sometimes
you do not know if the author of the book is credible.
There
is the problem of outdated books.
Timely
resources: books published in recent years, unless it is an extremely pertinent
source
Books
are much longer and more thorough than periodical articles or online sources
Take
note of the bibliography or any directed readings at the end of chapters
or the book
Magazines
Magazines like Time, Maclean's, and National
Geographic are written for the general public by professional writers who
are not experts in any specific field and may not have the experience or
knowledge to cover topics authoritatively.
Popular
magazines are not very long and do not contain a work cited, so the reader
has no way to determine where the expert writer obtained his sources.
These
articles are usually fairly easy to read and access. Instead of using
magazines, you may want to explore a less familiar type of periodical,
the professional journal.
The
Periodical section of the library and other database materials have listings
of international and topic specific professional magazines. Professional
magazines are similar to popular magazines, but these periodicals are written
for professionals in fields such as education, business, technology, and
so forth.
A
professional magazine like its counterpart the popular magazine may contain
useful topic specific information, but the articles are usually not
followed by a bibliography of sources.
Journals
Journals are a type of periodical written
by a professional in the field rather than expert writers, and most articles
have a bibliography of sources at the end, so if necessary, the accuracy
of the sources used to write the article can be verified. In addition
the articles are longer and more technical in nature.
Professional
journals are an excellent research source because of the credibility of
the author, the in-depth nature of the articles and the work cited. Because
of the technical nature of journal articles, these articles are sometimes
more difficult to read. However, if you are trying to direct your paper
towards more academic and scholarly research you may want to use professional
journals as a primary source of information.
Online Sources
Try
to use online sources to supplement sources already found in previous research.
It
is not the first place to do research.
When
using online sources it is difficult to know if the site you are accessing
is an academically credible source. There are many individuals who place
items on the internet which have little if any credibility.
If
the source originally appeared as a previously printed source like a book,
magazine, or journal and if it fits you probably can use it.