130 CHAPTER 6 | FRom FIndIng To EvAluATIng SouRCESIdentifying sources
We assume that by the time you visit the library or log on to the Inter
net to find sources, you are not flying blind. At the very least you will
have chosen a topic you want to explore (something in general you
want to write about), possibly will have identified an issue (a question
or problem about the topic that is arguable), and perhaps will even
have a working thesis (a main claim that you want to test against other
sources).
Let’s say, for example, that you are interested in the topic of nutrition
and obesity. Perhaps you have begun to formulate an issue: Trends show
that obesity is increasing at a time when published reports are also show
ing that the food industry may have been complicit by engineering pro
cessed foods with high fat, sugar, and salt content. In fact, these reports
point to the lack of nutritional value of processed foods. The issue might
be between what you see as an unfortunate trend that affects the health
of a growing population of children and adults in the United States and
the extent to which food manufacturers contribute to the problem. You
may have begun to formulate a question about who is responsible for
addressing this problem. Should individuals be more responsible for
making good choices? Should food manufacturers monitor themselves
and be more responsible to consumers? Should the government inter
vene to ensure that processed foods provide adequate nutrients and less
fat, sugar, and salt? The closer you are to identifying an issue or question,
the more purposeful your research will be and the more you will be able
to home in on the materials that will be most useful. As you read, your
research will help you refine, formulate a question, and develop a work
ing thesis.
However, a working thesis is just a place to begin. As you digest all
of the perspectives that your research yields, your interest in the topic or
issue may shift significantly. Maybe you’ll end up writing about the extent
to which the government should have a role, any role, in regulating the
food industry rather than about obesity. Perhaps you become interested
in trends in food distribution and end up writing about what some call the
“locavore” movement. Be open to revising your ideas and confronting the
complexities inherent in any topic. Pursue what interests you and what is
timely and relevant to your readers. The question, then, is what are you
trying to learn and demonstrate?
If you are unsure about where to start, we provide a list of standard
types of sources for doing research in Table 6.1. For example, you could
begin by looking up abstracts, a tool researchers use to get a brief snapshot
of the field and summaries of potentially relevant articles. You can simply
do a Google search, type in “abstracts,” and add the topic that interests
you (“Abstracts in Health Sciences”). You can also look up book reviews
to see how others might have responded to a book where you first learned
about the problems of obesity, nutrition, food production, and the like.
More specialized searches will take you to databases available on a given
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