You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test, focusing on the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose of a source of information.
Ask questions such as:
Who is the author? Are they an expert?
Why did the author publish it? What is their motivation?
How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence?
Synthesizing sources means comparing and contrasting the work of other scholars to provide new insights.
It involves analyzing and interpreting the points of agreement and disagreement among sources.
You might synthesize sources in your literature review to give an overview of the field of research or throughout your paper when you want to contribute something new to existing research.
For print sources, you can use your institution’s library database. This will allow you to explore the library’s catalog and to search relevant keywords.
As you cannot possibly read every source related to your topic, it’s important to evaluate sources to assess their relevance. Use preliminary evaluation to determine whether a source is worth examining in more depth.
An abstract concisely explains all the key points of an academic text such as a thesis, dissertation or journal article. It should summarize the whole text, not just introduce it.
An abstract is a type of summary, but summaries are also written elsewhere in academic writing. For example, you might summarize a source in a paper, in a literature review, or as a standalone assignment.
As a stand-alone assignment to prove you understand the material
For your own use, to keep notes on your reading
To provide an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review
In a paper, to summarize or introduce a relevant study
Want to speed up writing your summary? Try our free text summarizer. You can also try our interactive Chat with PDF tool to quickly find the most relevant information in your sources.
Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.
Like information literacy, it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.
It is important to find credible sources and use those that you can be sure are sufficiently scholarly.
Consult your institute’s library to find out what books, journals, research databases, and other types of sources they provide access to.
Look for books published by respected academic publishing houses and university presses, as these are typically considered trustworthy sources.
Look for journals that use a peer review process. This means that experts in the field assess the quality and credibility of an article before it is published.
Scholarly sources are written by experts in their field and are typically subjected to peer review. They are intended for a scholarly audience, include a full bibliography, and use scholarly or technical language. For these reasons, they are typically considered credible sources.
Popular sources like magazines and news articles are typically written by journalists. These types of sources usually don’t include a bibliography and are written for a popular, rather than academic, audience. They are not always reliable and may be written from a biased or uninformed perspective, but they can still be cited in some contexts.
There are many types of sources commonly used in research. These include:
Websites
Books
Journal articles
Newspapers
Encyclopedias
You’ll likely use a variety of these sources throughout the research process, and the kinds of sources you use will depend on your research topic and goals.
You usually shouldn’t cite tertiary sources as evidence in your research paper, but you can use them in the beginning stages of the research process to:
Establish background information
Identify relevant keywords and terms
Familiarize yourself with current debates in your field
Am I examining the source itself, or am I using it for background information?
Does the source provide original information (primary) or analyze information from other sources (secondary)? Or does it consolidate information from other sources (tertiary)?
It can sometimes be hard to distinguish accurate from inaccurate sources, especially online. Published articles are not always credible and can reflect a biased viewpoint without providing evidence to support their conclusions.
Information literacy is important because it helps you to be aware of such unreliable content and to evaluate sources effectively, both in an academic context and more generally.
When searching for sources in databases, think of specific keywords that are relevant to your topic, and consider variations on them or synonyms that might be relevant.
Once you have a clear idea of your research parameters and key terms, choose a database that is relevant to your research (e.g., Medline, JSTOR, Project MUSE).
Find out if the database has a “subject search” option. This can help to refine your search. Use Boolean operators to combine your keywords, exclude specific search terms, and search exact phrases to find the most relevant sources.
Proximity operators are specific words used alongside your chosen keywords that let you specify the proximity of one keyword in relation to another.
The most common proximity operators include NEAR (Nx), WITHIN (Wx), and SENTENCE.
Each proximity operator has a unique function. For example, Nx allows you to find sources that contain the specified keywords within a set number of words (x) of each other.
A Boolean search uses specific words and symbols known as Boolean operators (e.g., AND, OR) alongside keywords to limit or expand search results. Boolean searches allow you to:
A summary is always much shorter than the original text. The length of a summary can range from just a few sentences to several paragraphs; it depends on the length of the article you’re summarizing, and on the purpose of the summary.
Tip: Want to create a summary in a matter of seconds? Try our free text summarizer! You can also easily adjust the lenght of your summary within the tool. We also recommend trying QuillBot’s Word Counter to track the word count of your essays and other helpful metrics.
A summary is a short overview of the main points of an article or other source, written entirely in your own words. Want to make your life super easy? Try our free text summarizer today!
Questions?
Ask our team
Want to contact us directly? No problem. We are always here for you.
Scribbr uses advanced plagiarism detection technology similar to the software used by most universities and publishers, ensuring you receive the same or very similar results.
The add-on AI detector is powered by Scribbr’s proprietary software and is capable of detecting texts generated by ChatGPT, Perplexity and other generative AI tools with high accuracy.
