Writing a research paper can be a bit like putting a puzzle together without a guide or knowing if you have all the right pieces. It is totally normal to drop sources that turn out not to be useful or have to go back to the Library's databases to find new sources!
To determine if you have the right "pieces," look for the following while you read your sources:
- Thesis: What are the authors trying to argue? What questions are they trying to answer?
- Conclusions: What did the authors find out? Sometimes authors have multiple conclusions.
- Evidence: How are the authors supporting their argument? Do they have data and statistics? Do they have case studies? Are they relying on historical precedents? Some other kind of evidence?
- Limitations: Did the authors' conclusions come from a small sample? Did the authors find out that their conclusions are only valid in certain circumstances? If this is the case, you may need additional sources to help support your argument.
- Connections: Do your sources agree with each other? That is, do the facts from one source support the argument of another? Does an explanation in one source help you understand the data in another?
- For example, an article about changes in house prices over the past five years might support another author's argument that the minimum wage should be increased so that more people can own homes.
- Contradictions: Do your sources challenge each other?
- Contradictions might sound like a bad thing but they can be very useful! Sources that challenge each other might introduce new points of view you didn't know about before.
- Gaps: What questions do you still have? What has been left out of the research?
- Note: It's entirely possible that something hasn't been researched! Reach out to a librarian for help with gaps in the research.
Try out a research matrix as discussed in the Research Synthesis video above:
