Chapter 5.of thesis writing

Teaching Contents: Evaluating Sources

Teaching Aims: To make students aware of how to evaluate sources Teaching Focus: Way of Evaluating Sources

Teaching Methods: Discussion (group work, then class work) Teaching Procedures:

Step 1 Discussion on the assignment.

The students report their findings on what they have been asked to find on

the Internet.

Step 2 Questions on Chapter 5 for Discussion Questions and answers:

1. How do you evaluate your sources? What kinds of sources should you keep, and what should you drop?

(Looking through each source briefly to see whether it contains information that seems relevant to your particular topic. If your skimming reveals that an article provides useful information, you face a choice. You can either stop and read the article carefully, taking whatever notes are called for, or photocopy the article. But if the source contains nothing pertinent to your specific topic, you may drop it and remember to drop the notes from your list of sources, too.)

2. What should you do with for the sources you would like to keep? How about those you won’t keep?

(You should take notes about those you think useful or valuable, but the easiest way is to photocopy them. For those you won’t keep, remember to drop the items from your note list or bibliographical list.)

3. How do you compile a working bibliography? What is an entry for a book like? How about that for a periodical? What is the difference between the two?

( Making bibliography cards according to the samples given on page 83-84. One for books, the other for periodicals.)

4. What should you do about the potential sources (even those that sound slightly promising or those whose titles seem not to indicate a clear and immediate relation to your topic)?

(You should add every title of the sources which may be useful in you research later so that you won’t miss them. Perhaps some of them you will find useless, then you may drop them. But there are chances that you may find some of them quite useful or valuable. So during the whole procedure of your research or writing of the paper, you have to add or drop potential sources form your working bibliography all the time.)

5. How did each student find /search their sources? Fred, Shirley, Susanna and David.

(Omitted. See page 85-86.)

6. When should you reassess ( revalue) your topic? Why and how?

(When you doubt whether your topic is workable because you may find too many or too few sources for your research. If you quickly find many sources, just reduce the scope of the topic or sharpen the focus of your hypotheses. However, if you have only found tow or three sources, your topic needs to be broadened.)

7. How did the girl student mentioned in the textbook reassess her topic(narrow her topic)?

( See the procedure of it on page 87-88. First and second revised topics.)

8. How did the student revise a topic that is too narrow? What is the first one, the second and the final one? (See page -90.

The original one: the effect of the severe drought of 1973 on the rearing of

lion cubs in the Serengeti Plains of East Africa

The second version: the ways in which lions manage to survive periodic food shortages

The last one: In their effort to survive under sometimes difficult

circumstances, the female lion plays a more aggressive and critical role than the so-called king of beasts

9. How should you skim potential sources? How to skim books, periodical articles?

(Books: You should begin with the table of contents and the index. If you find a particular topic by reading the contents, you may find from the chapter titles the extent of the discussion and the major points it raises. If you are using an ides, take the time to check all the headings that might be relevant to your topic, not just the obvious ones. When you locate pages that deal with your topic, skim the first line or two of each paragraph, which may often be the topic sentences. In this way, you are likely to discover the author’s main points.

Periodicals: Read the outlines or abstracts to get the main ideas. If the abstract does not mention the information you need, just go on reading the first or second sentences to see whether there is something useful. Even if there is nothing useful, don’t drop it from your list of sources, for later perhaps you may need it when you revise your topic.)

10. How should you take notes while skimming a potential source? What should you

keep in mind when you determine how useful a source may be?

(Take brief notes that tell you how the source might prove useful or why it is not

useful). Usually you should write the notes on the back of your cards or follow the source entry if you work on computer.

You should keep the following things in mind: a. if the information is relevant to your topic b. how useful information it seem to offer

c. whether the source is to support or contradict your hypothesis)

11. Why should you skim the potential sources?

(The purpose is to find out quickly whether or not a source is useful and if it is, how much relevant information it contains as well as a chance to evaluate your hypothesis. (To check to see if the sources provide enough ideas and information to allow you to d a thorough job of research.))

12. When should you go back and look for more sources?

(When you find that your sources are fewer than five.)

13. What should you do if you have several sources offering the same information and

arrive at the same general judgement?

(Read only one of them to reduce the overload of sources. But don’t miss any valuable

information.)

14. How do you skim a book? How about a periodical article? What kind of articles you

shouldn’t skim but read carefully?

(a. Read the outlines and the first line of every paragraph to pick up the main ideas. b. Those needs close reading.)

15. How do you deal with the bibliography entries of which the sources look unpromising?

(Save the cards or keep them in a separate file for later use.)

16. How do you find current information?

(You’d better read periodical rather than books, because books can never be totally up-to-

date.)

17. How can you recognize a writer’s biases?

(Sometimes it is easy to recognize them, but at other times you have to determine a writer’s biases only by examining closely which aspects of a topic are being emphasized and how they are being discussed.)

18. Why should you consider different viewpoints when searching for sources? (Because a paper that depends mainly on the opinions and interpretations of one

write might well be criticized for being one-sided. You have to cite various points of views in your research paper to show you have done a lot of research or to develop your opinions or point of views. )

19. What are primary sources and secondary sources? Give an example to illustrate it.

( Primary sources refer to those that second sources write about. For example, in historical research, newspapers and magazines, published at the time of the event are the sources used by later historians, whose writings are secondary sources for your research. Another example, in literature, the term primary refers to the literary works themselves, while secondary refers to biographies and critical studies of the author’s works. 在审定资料的过程中要善于识别什么是原著的,什么是非原著的, 以便引用时作出正确的判断和说明等。)

20. Why should you review or even modify your hypothesis after you skim and evaluate

your sources?

(收集完资料以后重新看拟定论题有助于作者了解所收集的资料与论题是否相符。如果不

符， 就要修改论题，这样做能为以后进一步细读资料节省时间， 也使其更容易。)

Assignment

1. Do the exercise on page 97. 2. Preview Chapter 6.