Research: Intro Primary Sources Wikipedia and Google Guide Final Note

Paper: Intro Hardcore Graphs Citations Sample

Presentation: Intro General Tips Simple Heavy

Research
    This is where everything begins and is probably the 2nd hardest part of the whole thing. Worry not, I am
here to help. There are two types of sources, primary and secondary. Depending on who you write your
for, you will have to use a certain amount of each. For general and basic levels, one or no primary
source is necessary. If this applies to you, then your are home free because most secondary sources is
straight foward and easily checked. You can use the wikipedia and google guide below to help. All you
have to do is summarize or basically rewrite the information. The real trouble begins with primary sources.
As a rule of thumb, if your course is 200 and above as in in Bio 222 or Chem 437 etc., the professor may not
tell you anything besides just wanting a paper, though he might not ask for primary sources, he or she is probably
expecting it. Don't be shocked, be prepared.


Primary Sources
    Primary sources are first hand reords such as lab reports, journal publishings and lab notes on an
experiment. Often, this means most primary sources follow the scientific method and detailed each part of
it. Unlike secondary sources, which are summaries of primary and other secondary sources, primary
sources are not always readily available or understandable. Many are kept by servers on which you have
to pay for, but there are many ways around that.
    One way to hunt free sources is wikipedia. See the wikipedia and google guide for that. Though those
are the fastest and most convenient methods, you may be priveldged to a few others. One is to check
your university library. Chances are, your university pays certain providers for past journal publishings as
well as receive new journals. If they don't have it, ask if they have an interlibrary loan program, but mind
you this may take weeks and may not be worth it in the long run, especially if you tend to type your 10
page papers at 3A.M. that are due in less than 7 hours. Though tedious, it is often encourage to have at
least two recent primary sources for every five that you use, but for best results, 4 for every 5 which is a
4:1 ratio of primary to secondary.
    Another lengthy way that may get you recent or exclusive articles is to contact the authors. With the
dawn of the internet, sending an email requesting a copy of their paper. Make sure to be write a polite
and formal letter. Also try to note if they speak your language, do not be discourage if they don't
though as many know that google has a translator. This method has no guarantee of success, but if you
want free articles which are always hard to find, you will do anything.


Wikipedia and Google Guide
    The two things professors hate to see most. Google is search engine, not a source to be cited.
To find secondary articles, it couldn't be easier. Just type google into the address bar and ask it what
you want (i.e. "What is ATP"). For primary sources, on the top bar, click more > scholar, then type
what you want. But sometimes gives you a link to where the article is not free, but if you look closer,
you can find one where it is free. Look at the picture below.


    If you have no clue how start, wikipedia is your friend. But remember, to always fact check the cited sources and
never cite wikipedia itself. In fact, these sources can be your sources, be it primary or secondary and the best thing is
that it is already in citation format. So if you use that source, be it be a government website or a journal article, all
you have left to do is copy and paste. And if wikipedia is too difficult, try simple.wikipedia.org. That site also is
great to learn math without all the jargon and obtuse prose.


Final Note 
    Though not necessary, it is a good idea to save all your primary articles as a PDF if possible. Most sites offer that.
You should do this so if your internet goes down, you are not without it and it saves you the trouble of finding it again.
This also allows you to take home articles found using your school's library systems. This can help save a lot of time
when making your presentation. Failing at that, at least keep a list of all the urls on a notepad/wordpad/word proccessor.
You will be glad when you need that chart and you accidentally closed your browser (or like what earlier versions of
Firefox likes to do, crashing and losing all those tabs and windows that it had open).


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