TOPIC: ENGLISH COMPOSITION ASSIGNMENT 55.

AUTHOR:

AFLLIATION:.

DATE: 15TH JUNE, 2013.

In writing research papers numerous sources of information should be used to enhance the understanding of a given topic. However the validity and reliability of these sources should be established before referring from them. This ensures that the final work is credible and is comprehensive. In this bid to establish the credibility of sources, a series of steps should be taken.

The first step is determining the type of information source. Sources of information are can be categorized into two; primary and secondary sources. Primary sources contain first hand information whereby the author or Sources of information are can be categorized into two; primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources contain first hand information. They can be reports from experiments or field researches. Secondary sources are those which have been synthesized from original documents. Examples are book reviews, scholarly articles, biographies and textbooks. On this perspective primary sources are more credible since they contain a pure record of facts.

The second step should be determining the age of the source. When dealing with current issues, recent publications should be used, on the other hand older publications would be suitable for historical researches. The third step should be establishing the publisher. Books published by scholarly institutions like universities are more reliable. Self and commercial published sources are less reliable. The fourth step should be determining the objectivity of the author. This is done by studying about the author to establish their qualifications and hence gauge their knowledge based on qualifications and reputation.

There are differences that occur when evaluating credibility of print sources and online sources. For print sources, the type either secondary or primary is crucial unlike for an online one where the creator of the website is more important to know. For print sources adverts are considered to make the content to be shallow unlike online ones whereby advertisements are considered to induce biasness of content. For online sources we consider the website sponsor as opposed to print ones where we focus on the publishers. Nature of the source example a journal is scrutinized for print sources unlike online sources where the purpose of the website is depended upon.

Similarities also exist between the steps taken for both. Age or the date of updating the online or print source is considered. Qualification of the authors of both sources is also a step in establishing credibility. Relevance to the topic of the content of both sources is another factor depended upon.

In short the above steps should be taken in establishing the reliability, validity and hence credibility of both print and online sources. With all this measures put in place, quality of the final script of the research paper is assured.

REFERENCES

Ebsco industries (2012) : Academic scholarly premier

http://library.mtsu.edu/libdata/page.phtml?page-id=32Anthony W. (2008) A rulebook for arguments.

Amazon publishers.

Harris. R. (2009): Evaluating internet research sources. Virtual salt.

http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.html