Post 8: Choosing Sources

With the annotated bibliography due soon, and having too much experience citing in MLA format, I deemed it more useful to take a peek into Chapter 6 of the BBG for this post. This chapter covers the different types of sources that can be used and tips on how to choose the most relevant. First, it discusses when to use primary/secondary/tertiary sources. A primary source, like the interview we had to conduct (look at us being working journalists), is important when raw, uninterpreted is necessary to get the original speaker's message across. A secondary source, like the scholarly articles we have to analyze for our papers (ew), will probably be the type of source we use most for this project as it is the most common when searching for analyzed information. Lastly, tertiary sources, like those miserable annotated bibs. none of us have started yet (or maybe that's just lazy ol' me), are the best when just a general overview of a subject is needed.

The chapter then describes how to dig deeper into a source and find the information desired. First thing, obviously, you have to figure out if the source is relevant to your topic or if it raises more questions about it. If it passes that test, evaluate the author's credentials. If you thought you were reading a paper about rocket science written by some genius with 6 PhDs but it's actually just some random dude who's seen Star Wars too many times, move on past it. Then you have to determine the author's purpose and audience. If its persuasive, it can be used as support or a counterargument to your paper. If the author is targeting a specific group of scientists through a space research journal as opposed to a general audience through Buzz Feed, it would be of more help to your paper about the specifics of rocket stuff (I don't know why this post is geared towards rockets, I am terrible at science). After analyzing the sources relevance and usefulness, you decide whether or not you can use it and then - woop! - you've got yourself another bullet on your bibliography.