organizing and synthesizing sources sarah morris ut libraries spring 2013
TRANSCRIPT
ORGANIZING AND SYNTHESIZING SOURCESSarah Morris
UT Libraries
Spring 2013
The Research Paper •How do you get from your initial assignment to your final paper?
•What steps do you take and what tasks do you do?
Why Conduct Research?• We conduct research and write research papers to help
solve problems. • In a research paper you can
• Explore ideas• Share ideas• Engage in conversation • Offer up solutions to problems
• You use evidence and sources in a research paper to support your ideas and form an argument.
• To form an argument, you need to make sure you have organized sources that you can use effectively.
Organizing Sources
•Organizing your sources is a process called source synthesis
•Source synthesis means that you organize your sources and put them together in your paper in order to make an argument and say something new.
How do you synthesize sources?
•The Main Idea• Identifying the main ideas in your materials can help you organize your sources and use them effectively in your paper
•What your source is saying• Identifying key points• Look for abstracts and subject terms
•Pull it all together – take notes
Sample Research Topic
• What effects do organic foods have on people’s nutrition and overall health?
• Look for information on where organic food is sold
Finding the Main Idea
Activity: The Match Game
Taking Notes: Tips and Tricks
• Look for Main Ideas• You can focus on article abstracts and subject terms in
databases as starting points• Try to locate the article’s thesis statement
• Link resources together• Look for common themes to connect resources• Create “bins” of terms and ideas to organize your
research into useful categories
• Remember the paper topic!• Make sure your resources relate back to that topic
Tools and Resources
• Evernote – storage and capture tool• https://evernote.com/
• Dropbox – cloud storage and sharing• https://www.dropbox.com/
• Bubble.us – mind mapping • https://bubbl.us/
• Mind42 – mind mapping• http://mind42.com/
• SquareLeaf – note taking• http://squareleaf.net/
Additional Resources
• Course Guide: http://goo.gl/SPc35 • Ask a Librarian
• http://www.lib.utexas.edu/ask • Undergraduate Writing Center
• http://uwc.utexas.edu/