7. Analyzing Sources

Now that you have a collection of sources for your project, you’ll need to figure out how to use them. In this chapter, we provide you with tools for integrating your sources into your project. Being able to use your sources effectively is key to creating a scholarly conversation in your project and showing how your argument is situated in relation to other research on your topic.

What Are We Doing in This Module?

We will provide a heuristic for thinking about how you might use different types of sources in your own work, and practice ways to responsibly represent, respond to, and credit your sources. We will apply these skills to a research inquiry of your own, and end this module by organizing your research findings in preparation for writing up your results.

How Will We Do It?

We will begin by determining how you will categorize your sources using the BEAM method. Then, we’ll focus on engaging with your sources by critiquing their content and learning how to paraphrase effectively. Next, we’ll examine how you can put your sources into conversation with your argument and primary research and each other. Finally, we’ll show you how to cite your sources correctly to avoid plagiarism.

Why Does It Matter?

All of your primary research analysis and the sources you’ve collected mean nothing if you can’t put them together in your project. By creating a conversation with your sources and research, you will be able to insert yourself into the scholarly discussion around your topic. Showing that you are familiar with the research on your topic gives you an authoritative voice that can add nuance to your thesis and make your argument more persuasive.

Module Goal and Learning Outcomes

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• Categorize your sources using BEAM
• Critique your sources
• Summarize the scholarly conversation around your topic
• Create citations for your sources