SEARCHIng FoR SouRCES 137searching for sources
Once you’ve decided on the types of sources you want to use — primary
or secondary, popular or scholarly — you can take steps to locate the
information you need. You might begin with a tour of your university or
local library, so that you know where the library keeps newspapers, gov
ernment documents, books, journals, and other sources of information.
Notice where the reference desk is: This is where you should head to ask a
librarian for help if you get stuck. You also want to find a computer where
you can log on to your library’s catalog to start your search. Once you have
located your sources in the library, you can begin to look through them for
the information you need.
You may be tempted to rely on the Internet and a search engine like
Google or Yahoo! But keep in mind that the information you retrieve from
the Internet may not be trustworthy: Anyone can post his or her thoughts
on a Web site. Of course, you can also find excellent scholarly sources
on the Internet. (For example, Johns Hopkins University Press manages
Project MUSE, a collection of 300 plus academic journals that can be
accessed online through institutional subscription.) School libraries also
offer efficient access to government records and other sources essential to
scholarly writing.
Let’s say you are about to start
researching a paper on language diver
sity and the English only movement.
When you log on to the library’s site,
you find a menu of choices: Catalog,
Electronic Resources, Virtual Reference
Desk, and Services & Collections. (The
wording may vary slightly from library
to library, but the means of locating
information will be the same.) When you
click on Catalog, another menu of search
choices appears: Keyword, Title, Author,
and Subject (Figure 6.1). The hunt is on.■^2 Talk to an expert who can provide you with some ideas about
current issues in the field of interest. Be sure to take detailed
notes.
■^3 Decide whether you should use primary or secondary sources.
What type of information would help you develop your argument?
■^4 Decide whether you should use popular or scholarly sources.
What type of information would your readers find compelling?FIGURE 6.1 Menu of Basic
Search Strategies06_GRE_60141_Ch6_129_150.indd 137 11/11/14 2:46 PM