Chapter 5 of Envision helps you figure out how to find reliable and good sources when writing an argumentative paper. When looking for sources you want to analyze the images, audience, and writing styles of your sources to find which ones best will help your argumentative essay. To do this you have to know the topic being discusses and what the different positions are. Also, you have to watch how you type in your search terms. For example, on the web you want to use popular terms, in a library catalogue you want to plug in terms in the search box, and on databases you want to match terms with diction and formality.
There are two types of sources, primary and secondary, that are used for argumentative papers. A primary source is original texts such as documents, rare books and manuscripts, portfolios of photography, government documents, and other one-of-a-kind texts. Secondary sources, on the other hand, provide commentary on your primary material and your topic. Because it is so important to know what your sources are it is highly important to know how to evaluate different types of texts. To evaluate a website you should look for the author and find out how much authority that source has. Also, does the author leave a place for feedback, who is the audience, what is the author's purpose, what is the rhetorical stance, how timely is the page and if the author sited his sources on the web page. When evaluating academic sources it is important to assess the author, find the place of publication, find the date it was published, look at the table of contents and index, and note the tone of the text. Lastly, to evaluate field research, such as surveys, you evaluate the person's bias towards your specific topic and their credibility.
When conducting field research look at your target population, develop your questions, prepare for the interview/survey, record and document your results, and follow up your interviews by sending a thank you note to thank the person for their time.
When listing all your sources though it is very important to remember to site them. You do this in an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography is all the sources you used during research but your world cited will be the sources you ended up actually using in your paper. Your annotated bibliography should in alphabetical order and have complete identification of the author and the work your citing.
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