ENG 1100 Lecture 12: 12. Gathering Material

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: English
• Course: ENG 1100
• Professor: Ross Clarkson

Document Summary

Gathering material for research essay: purpose of research essay: To become familiar with the conceptual framework", or the knowledge base of a discipline (economics; psychology; sociology, criminology etc. You want to put the concepts of the discipline to work on the material. Do to the existing understanding by adding your own conclusion/thesis and argument. Primary sources: experiments, surveys and interviews (field research), and historical documents like first hand accounts or letters. You do not often work with primary sources unless you are conducting interviews or surveys yourself, or going to the archives. Secondary sources: research is mostly done with secondary sources, or relying on the work of others as sources of information. A secondary source is when someone writes about primary material, or uses interviews, surveys or historical documents to make their point or do their analysis. We often come upon primary sources through secondary sources. Scholarly sources: books and journal articles by experts in the field.