Sources of Information in Social Science Flashcards
Critical Thinking - Literature Review
When examining past research, you are conducting a literature review, which is an examination of published material to understand what has already been said about the topic.
Critical Thinking - Primary Research
Primary research is defined as a factual, firsthand account of a study written by a person who was part of the study. Primary means it comes directly from the researcher who conducted the study. The information is most useful when you need specific information on a field.
Critical Thinking - Secondary Research
Secondary research is defined as an analysis and interpretation of primary research. This occurs when an author combines many primary research articles with the intent of saying something. Secondary research is useful when you need broad information on a topic.
Critical Thinking - Explain when one would use primary research and when one would use secondary research.
Information from Primary Research is most useful when you need specific information on a field. However, Secondary Research is useful when you need broad information on a topic.
Critical Thinking - Source
A source can be any work, creator of a piece of work, or publisher of that work. Sources can be helpful in supporting your work, providing you with background information, and give you ideas for experimental design and analysis.
Critical Thinking - Explain what print and online sources are and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
You can find sources in print and online, and both types have advantages and disadvantages. While print sources tend to go through a more rigorous quality control, they can sometimes be more difficult to locate. And while online sources are at the tips of your fingers, they also require more careful scrutiny because anyone, anywhere, at any time can publish information online, regardless of whether it is factual or not.
Critical Thinking - Validity
This is a different definition of validity than the one in the field of logic.
The first piece of analyzing a source is to look at its validity. This is the truthfulness of the source in respect to the information presented. The existence of citations and the quality of them determines the level of validity. If a source is ‘peer-reviewed’, which means that it was published in a scholarly journal that was reviewed by other experts in the field, or provides secondary sources that are ‘peer-reviewed’ the validity increases. The second piece of analyzing a source is to look at its reliability.
Critical Thinking - Reliability
The second piece of analyzing a source is to look at its reliability. In order for a source to be reliable, the information presented must be able to be repeated. The final conclusions must be able to be created again in order to reinforce the reliability of the findings. Reliability is, literally, the extent to which we can rely on the source of the data. The two basic elements of reliability are primary sources and secondary sources. There are some key areas that must be examined in order to judge the reliability of a source: (1) Author - Who is the author and how credible is he/she? (2) Date - The date of the source should not be older than ten years; (3) Publisher - It should be from a reputable publisher; (4) Organization - The source should be backed by a known, unbiased organization of experts; (5) Research method - The source should have statistically proven results. The first piece of analyzing a source is to look at its validity.
Critical Thinking - Informational Nonfiction - Reference Book
A reference book is a book consulted for specific matters. It contains useful or specially organized information. Examples include an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an almanac, and an atlas. Material in a reference book is typically organized in alphabetical order so that topics can be located quickly. An index is usually provided to serve as a guide to the thousands of topics found in that book, or to locate the smaller subtopics of the larger subjects. Also, at the end of articles in reference books a bibliography is usually provided. This can help you find more sources, which is great when doing research papers.
Critical Thinking - Informational Nonfiction - Reference Book - Cross Reference
In a reference book, a cross reference guides the readers from the subject entry that is not used to one that is or to where related information is located. In an index for an encyclopedia, it often says ‘See also…’ For example, in the index of a book about Nobel Laureates it might say, ‘See also Mandela, Nelson’. Or within the text, it might say ‘Allies: See Allied Powers’.
Critical Thinking - Informational Nonfiction - Reference Book - Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia can provide a general overview on a subject, or you can consult a more specific type of encyclopedia that has more detailed information on one specific topic. A more general encyclopedia would be the World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places, while the Encyclopedia of American Crime or the Astronomy Encyclopedia would be more specific examples.
Critical Thinking - Informational Nonfiction - Reference Book - Dictionary
A dictionary is a reference book that provides the definition of words and what part of speech they are through an abbreviation such as ‘n.’ for ‘noun’ or ‘adj.’ for ‘adjective’. It also typically gives the origin of words and the way they are pronounced by using phonics. There are also multilingual dictionaries.
Critical Thinking - Informational Nonfiction - Reference Book - Almanac
An almanac is an annual reference book of useful and interesting facts and statistics that relate to countries, sports, entertainment, etc. There are a variety of almanacs, such as the World Almanac, the Almanac of American Politics, and the Weather Almanac.
Critical Thinking - Informational Nonfiction - Reference Book - Atlas
An atlas is a geographical reference book of maps. It can contain different types of maps, such as those that show population, climate, and transportation routes. A couple of examples include The Times Atlas of the World and the World Atlas of the Oceans. A map legend is a table on a map, chart, or the like, listing and explaining the symbols used.
Critical Thinking - Nonfiction
Nonfiction, which includes any writing based on real life events, encompasses a vast variety of writing. Two subcategories for nonfiction are informational and literary. Informational nonfiction includes writing with the purpose to describe or express facts. Literary nonfiction also contains facts, but is meant to entertain the reader. In this way, literary nonfiction reads like fiction and has story elements, like character, setting, and plot.
