Remember to stay flexible as your search and read. Researching is not a straightforward process and it might take some time and multiple tries to find what you need.
Primary literary and philosophical texts: These are things you've already read, so thats cool! Make sure to use them and draw connections between your sites and these sources to give context to your site.
Reference Sources: Credo and Oxford are great for this!
Journal Articles: These will give a scholarly perspective to your site and lend a certain amount of credibility to your presentation. Use these sources to draw connections between your site as a representation of ideas of Justice, among other things. Use WISE or various databases to discover articles.
Critical and Historical Books: These sources will help give history and context to your site and how it is currently studied. Bonus: They might be easier to read than journal articles. Use WISE to find books (we can help you find them in the stacks!) and ebooks.
News Sources: Use news articles to tell your classmates about present-day events and discussions around your site. Google News and the New York Times Archives will help with this!
The CRAAP Test is an easy-to-remember way to evaluate your source. It will help you figure out if your source is good or it it's- well, you know...
Currency: When was this written/published?
Relevance: Does this help me with my research?
Authority: Who wrote this? What are the author's credentials?
Accuracy: Is this true? Does it seem reliable?
Purpose: Why was this written? Does the author have an agenda other than educating others?
Remember that librarians are here to help every step of the way, not just for finding stuff. E-mail us to set up an appointment or come to the library!
There are many ways to take notes - and taking notes is very important - but here is one suggested format you can use.
A downloadable copy of the Word Template for this note format is provided below. You can hand-write your notes, but typing them into the template will make it easy to copy and paste your quotes when you need them later on.
English Capstone Reading Notes