Good Research
Practices
MGRP
Before you Start
• Before you actually begin researching you need at
least an idea of what you’re looking for.
• We determine what we are looking for by
formulating research questions.
What is good research?
• Good research comes from credible sources.
• Eg. Academic journals
• Books
- Interviews
- Newspaper articles (not editorials)
- Government documents.
Why are they credible?
• These sources are credible because they have gone
through a series of editing criterion to reach publication.
Bad Sources
• Stay away from subjective sources like:
• - Clearly biased sites
• - Radical organizations
• - Blogs
• Newspaper editorials
• Etc.
Why?
• These sources are NOT credible because
they are not edited by anyone and are
self-published.
Wikipedia
• Wikipedia cannot be cited in your paper.
• It can be used to springboard your ideas, but it is
nota credible source.
Good or Bad Source?
• https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7zaU7FlRPkC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=hiphop&ots=CYtSvXCI87&sig=kgmORTdocwGucVMBOSos08tJzWE#v=on
epage&q=hip-hop&f=false
• http://www.desihiphop.com/
Before you Start
• Research questions – questions we use to probe and guide our
research.
• Ex- If my topic is hip-hop, my research questions might
include:
• - Where did hip-hop originate?
• - Why are the majority of hip-hop artists African American?
What Does it Mean to Cite?
• We cite sources to:
• 1.) Give credit to the sources of the
information we use in our writing.
• 2.) Avoid any cases of plagiarism.
When do we do it?
• We cite sources whenever we use a piece of
information that came from an outside source.
• If you aren’t sure, cite it.
Are There Different Ways?
• Yes, you may paraphrase information
or quote it directly from the text.
Example
• Direct quotation:
• The emergence of hip-hop provided a clean canvas for
youth to illustrate their frustrations with the “reversal of
civil rights, police brutality, anti-youth legislation and the
incarceration of thousands of hip-hop generationers.”
(Kitawana 21).
Example
• Paraphrase:
• The emergence of hip-hop provided a clean canvas
for youth to illustrate their frustrations with the
shift in the mistreatment of young African
Americans (Kitawana 21).