Ways One Scholarly Source Research And Writing

We’ve talked in class about how all texts are built on the foundation of other texts. We’ve also talked about how all academic writing participates in an on-going conversation. For any given scholarly article you utilize, you will find a map of that conversation in the article’s bibliography. One of reasons we stress keeping a running annotated bibliography in 39C is that it forces you to remain conscious of that on-going conversation, to map your own participation in it.

For this exercise you’ll be exploring the ways one scholarly source utilizes others.

1. Pick the scholarly source that you consider to be most important to your argument. We’ll call this Source 1 Do a thorough annotation and source evaluation for this source.
2. Now that you’re even more familiar with your source, determine which two sources utilized by the author are most important to his/her argument. We’ll call these Sources 2 and 3. Using our library resources, find and read both sources carefully, then write a thorough annotation and source evaluation for each.
3. Discuss how Source 1 utilizes Sources 2 and 3 by considering the following:
   1. How does the author of Source 1 position herself in relation to the theses of Sources 2 and 3? Does agree with their arguments? Does she disagree? Does she both agree and disagree? How do you know?
   2. How does she utilize their arguments for her own purposes? Does she deal fairly with these arguments, or are they misrepresented? Does she use Sources 2 and 3 in ways their authors might disapprove of? Explain.
   3. What keywords or fundamental concepts do these sources hold in common? Are they employed consistently, or does the author of Source 1 tweak meanings or usages employed in Sources 2 and 3?
   4. How do the disciplinary backgrounds of each author seem to impact their arguments? For example, if the author of Source 1 is a legal scholar and the author of Source 2 is a sociologist, how are their concerns different? Do they rely on different kinds of evidence?
4. How can you use what you’ve learned in this exercise to add nuance to your own argument?