Finding Sources for Paper #2

The goal for conducting research is to become more aware of the conversation surrounding your topic.  If you’re doing a ‘guide’ to some activity, you want to read other sources’ ideas first, so you can understand where you fit into the conversation (and find the naysayers).  Additionally, if you’re doing the definition essay, and you say, “I consider myself an X,” you want to know how other people discuss being an “X,” and if you agree with them. 

EX: I want to write a guide about how to self-publish your own novel.  What are other writers saying about this?  What is their advice?  Is it the same as mine?  Who would the naysayers be to my approach/ideas?

Step #1: Go to the Linschied Library’s webpage (found at the top of the ECU website); in the “EBSCO Discovery Service” search, type in your search term (you might need to play around with this to get the right result).  I would try “self publishing novels.”

Step #2: I found 215 results, from a variety of articles and books (you can choose to search just articles or just books from the beginning).  Skimming the first page, I found 3 that look interesting: “A Book Industry Couple Tries Self-Publishing, “Colliding With Readers,” and “Of Decisions and Dream Chasing.”  I decide to click on “Of Decisions and Dream Chasing.”

Step #3: The link brings me to a summary of the article complete with an abstract: “The author discusses his experience self-publishing his novel "The Breeders." Topics include the benefits and drawbacks in his experience of attempting to publish a book in eight months, the risks of ruining his reputation through not using a traditional literary agent and publisher, and the lessons he learned by self-publishing his book.”  From this, I can click on the PDF Full Text link (to the left) to read the entire article.

Step #4: After reading the article, I find ideas to respond to as well as a slight ‘naysayer’ response to my own ideas.  On the right hand side, there is a “Cite” link that gives you the MLA citation for your Works Cited page (so you can cut and paste).  When you quote this in your paper, cite the author and page number (Beier, 68)—since this is a magazine article, it has a page number. 

Step #5: Repeat for other sources or to find a more applicable source.  If you don’t find anything worthwhile, vary your search terms.  Also, don’t forget to search for books in the library.  Remember, you don’t have to read an entire book to use it as a source: read selectively, look through the table of contents and the index at the back for useful pages. 

REMEMBER, you can’t write a paper until you know the conversation.  Even if you know a lot about your subject, you need people to respond to.  Sources are the conversation.  The more you read, the easier this paper will be to write!