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know who the experts are (#ulink_915dae9f-3a0f-55c8-a989-27fabab38a1a)
recognize what makes a text academic (#ulink_afebbf89-a6e4-5146-be3f-57b8b55b7e58)
choose relevant materials (#ulink_b52495c2-c1ad-50c7-9d7e-0bfcf300a8e0)
manage your materials (#ulink_0348974a-8333-5f03-8bae-4128e53ff29f)
Quiz
Self-evaluation
Which of these texts are suitable to use when writing an essay? Circle your answer.
Choosing academically credible source material for your essay
Selecting good quality source material for your essay is a key skill. Relying on materials recommended in your course reading list is a safe option, but it may not give you all the information you need. You will have to develop the ability to select the right type of material yourself. This is particularly important if you use the internet for research.
Glossary
source material Source materials are books, articles, and other documents that provide information for a piece of research.
Advances in information technology have increased the amount of information available but made it more difficult to identify good quality material. It is now possible for virtually anyone with access to the internet to make their writing available to the public. Whereas in the past, publishers and librarians would have screened information for quality, now the researcher is largely responsible for this task.
Some sources, academic journal articles for example, are normally considered more academically acceptable than newspaper articles for example. However, what is acceptable for your essay will depend on your topic and how you intend to use the material. If, for example, you are writing an essay analysing media coverage of the 2008 banking crisis, it would not only be appropriate but also necessary to refer to newspaper articles and news broadcasts. Nevertheless, you would also need to find sources that support your observations and ideas about the media coverage. To do this, you need to find academically credible source materials.
Glossary
screen If you screen something, you check it systematically to decide whether it is suitable.
cite If you cite something, you quote it or mention it, especially as an example or proof of what you are saying.
There are many different types of materials available, each with advantages and disadvantages. Although some sources of information may not be sufficiently rigorous for you to cite in your essay, they may be useful to you in other ways as you do your research. Popular magazines such as The Economist or New Scientist, for example, could give you a readable introduction to a topic and ideas that you can then go on to investigate through more academic sources if required.
Exercise 1
Match each type of material 1–6 with the comment a—f that you think best fits.
Knowing who the experts are
Before you spend time reading a text, it is normally a good idea to check the author’s credentials. Authors of good quality, reliable information generally:
Glossary
credentials Someone’s credentials are their previous achievements, training, and general background, which indicate that they are qualified to do something.
have professional qualifications showing they have the knowledge and training to write about the topic
are connected to or work for a recognized and respected organization, for example a university, a research institute, a government department, or professional association
have their work published by recognized publishing houses, journals or organizations
are cited in other academic works
do not gain commercial advantage through promoting certain views.
Tips
If you are not sure whether a publisher, journal or organization is suitable, ask your lecturer and/or university librarian for advice.
If you do not know whether the author of a book or article has been cited in other academic works, check the bibliographies of related publications.
Search for the item through Google Scholar™, which shows how often publications have been cited in other academic literature.
Exercise 2
Read the following biographical information about an author.
Does the author appear to have suitable academic credentials? Why or why not?
‘Heidi Cullen is a senior research scientist with Climate Central, a non-profit research organization through which she reports on climate change for news outlets, including PBS NewsHour, Time.com and The Weather Channel. Before joining Climate Central, Dr. Cullen served as The Weather Channel’s first on-air climate expert and helped create Forecast Earth, the first weekly television series to focus on issues related to climate change and the environment. She is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University, a member of the American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society, and an associate editor of the journal Weather, Climate, and Society […] She holds a BS in engineering and a PhD in climatology from Columbia University and lives with her husband and two dogs in Princeton, New Jersey.’
Source: Extract “About the Author” from The Weather of the Future by Heidi Cullen. Copyright © 2010 by Heidi Cullen.
Tips
Use educational and government websites with internet suffixes: .edu, .ac or .gov as they are generally considered more credible.
Avoid online material that is published through commercial sites (sites with a .com or .co suffix) as they may be biased.
Websites of non-commercial organizations usually have a .org suffix. Cite widely known and respected organizations, such as the United Nations.
Be wary of other organizations set up to promote a particular view or cause. They may be biased so indicate this possibility in your essay if you cite them.
Exercise 3
A student searching the internet for texts for the essay: Is generosity an innate human trait? came up with the search results below. Which of the items should be treated with caution? Why?
Choosing up-to-date materials
It is generally preferable to use up-to-date source materials, ideally published within the last five years. However, what ‘up-to-date’ means in practice depends on your topic. If you are researching a topic that is changing rapidly, for example topics related to science, engineering and information technology, books and articles even a few years old may no longer be relevant.
Glossary
seminal A seminal work is an important and influential work.
Sometimes, on the other hand, it may be acceptable or even necessary to refer to older source material, for example, if you are referring to a seminal work or if you are giving a historical overview of what scholars have said about your topic.
Recognizing academic texts
From time to time you will come across texts which appear to be written by authors with academic credentials but which are still not appropriate for use in your essay because they have not been written for a scholarly audience. It is therefore important to be able to recognize whether a text is appropriate by looking at the way it is written.
Exercise 4
Read the text below. Do you think it has been written for an academic audience? Why or why not?
‘We’ve all had experience of generous behaviour – people helping others without expecting something in return. We naturally assume that altruism is a virtue that we learn from our parents when we are children. ‘Share your toys … Be nice … Let your little brother go first …’ But science says that altruism is probably instinctive.
Fascinating studies of the chimp, our closest relative, have produced evidence that altruism is a genetic trait. Chimps don’t teach their offspring to be generous, but scientists Felix Warneken and Michael Tomasello from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany have discovered that chimps do give other chimps a hand, even ones they don’t know, without expecting a reward.’
When authors write in an academic style for an academic audience, they are more likely to:
support opinions with evidence
refer to other authors by surname (for example, ‘Davis’ rather than ‘John Davis’ or ‘Mr Davis’)
give bibliographic information about works cited (for example, ‘Davis (2009: 24) states that …’
use ‘objective’ language (for example, ‘It is often said that …’ rather than ‘We often say that …’
use formal language (for example ‘numerous’ rather than ‘lots of’)
use precise language
use noun phrases rather than verbs (for example, ‘excessive alcohol consumption’ rather than ‘drinking too much alcohol’)
Glossary
noun phrase A noun phrase is a noun or pronoun, or a group of words based on a noun or pronoun.
and less likely to:
make claims that are not backed up by evidence
make exaggerated claims or categorical statements, that is statements that do not have exceptions (for example ‘everyone likes to have fun’)
refer to other authors by their full names or first names, or use titles such as ‘Dr’ or ‘Mrs’
use emotive words, for example ‘fantastic’, ‘dreadful’
use personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’
use slang or informal expressions
use contractions such as ‘isn’t’ or ‘won’t’
begin sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but’
use certain punctuation marks such as the dash (-) or the exclamation mark (!).
Exercise 5
Look again at the text in Exercise 4 and identify the features that make it relatively informal in style.
1 What personal pronouns does the writer use?
2 How does the writer refer to other researchers?
3 What forms of punctuation are there that do not normally appear in more formal texts?
4 What contractions does the writer use?
5 Which words have been abbreviated?
6 Does the writer use any vague or imprecise expressions? If so, what are they?
7 Does the writer use language that is informal or emotive? If so, what examples can you fi nd?
8 What categorical expression does the writer use?
Now compare it with the text below, which has been written in a more academic style.
Altruistic behaviour, that is the offer of assistance to others without the motive of personal gain, is often said to be a characteristically human trait (Carter, 1989; Ericson, 1994). Moreover, it is commonly assumed that children learn to behave altruistically from their parents (Carter, 2004). However, the fi ndings of recent studies of chimpanzee behaviour suggest that altruism may be more instinctive than previously thought. Warneken and Tomasello (2006), for example, have documented numerous instances of chimpanzees assisting other chimpanzees to locate a food source without the expectation of a reward.
Choosing relevant materials
The availability of so much information also means that it is important to learn how to quickly identify whether a text is relevant to your research topic. Titles of academic texts are often very descriptive of their contents, so that is a good place to start. For example, the article from Exercise 3 entitled ‘Is altruism a genetic trait?’ is based on a research article which has the longer more descriptive title: ‘Altruistic Helping in Human Infants and Young Chimpanzees’.
Exercise 6
Imagine you are looking for information to answer the essay question Assess the European Central Bank’s response to the 2008 global financial crisis. Your key word search has returned the following items. Which items do you think are relevant? Which are not? Why not?
Remember to look carefully at the essay question to identify the focus of your research. Notice how the instructions set the limits of your investigation in terms of
place
time
aspect of the topic to be discussed
1 International financial crises: causes, prevention, and cures
L.H. (2000) The American Economic Review, 2000 – JSTOR
2 The aftermath of financial crises
Reinhart, C.M. & Rogoff, K.S. - 2009 - nber.org
3 Structural causes of the global financial crisis: a critical assessment of the ‘new financial architecture’
