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Research Tips

Research Tips. Ms. Logan English I.

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Research Tips

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  1. Research Tips Ms. Logan English I

  2. Check their credentials. I've beaten this one into the ground that you probably guessed it, but I'll beat it some more and some more. Most sources will have some kind of short biography giving a person's credentials. It should tell you what their education has been, give a highlight of publishing credits (you can look for someone's vitae if you want a full list; with many scholars, they won't fit on a book's cover or flyleaf), and maybe name some prominent associations. If these are either: • Missing (the publisher may not have had room, or if your book is missing a paper cover, it may have been there -- but assuming otherwise...) • Not relevant (i.e., a book on Biblical scholarship written by someone with a Ph. D. in aerodynamics!) • Unclear (i.e., it says they "got a Ph. D. at Vanderbilt" but does not say in what)

  3. ....you'll need to think about that source a bit. Obviously such credentials are not required to be an author in the right (especially if one uses sources of such credit to compose a book) but they can help you decide whether an author is likely to have credibility.

  4. Check their sources. A respectable source should have some sort of bibliography and/or notes. Look at these carefully. Warning signs on this are: • If you see the same sources used over and over, in other words, minimal variety in sources. This could indicate someone who hasn't done a lot of work themselves and is just copying one author uncritically (good example: Michael Martin using Wells in his "did Jesus exist" chapter, or Laurence Gardner using so much Barbara Theiring). Of course you'll need to consider other possibilities (is the author offering a refutation of or "update" to the source he uses?), but re-use of the same source repeatedly is often a danger sign.

  5. If you see incomplete citations or none at all -- if the source has no notes (just a bibliography), or bad ones (like The Hiram Key noting with just a title and author -- no page number) there is likely malfeasance and/or incompetence at work.

  6. If you see sources that are overwhelmingly old -- unless the book is a review of history or something like that, high use of sources that aren't recent could be a sign of someone not doing critical research.

  7. Works Cited "How to Do Research Critically -- a Few Hints." Tekton Education and Apologetics Ministries. James Patrick Holding. Tektonitron Apologetics Encyclopedia. Answering Bible Difficulties and Bible Contradictions. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. <http://www.tektonics.org/gk/howcritical.html>.

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