Academic Insights – 9 top tips for... using sources

It's really attractive

to be able to write

what you think about

your own subject.

But actually,

it's also really important to

justify and show that

you have done some additional

reading and researching,

You're gaining additional insights.

The first rule is to make sure that

it fits the subject area.

And then you're looking

to make it fit with the question,

and to support and justify

some of your own arguments

and discussions.

You can look in books;

you can look in journals.

You can look in associated material.

But it may also be good to

take some more current examples -

maybe from a magazine

- that look at the subject area

from a different and lighter context.

Usually if you go

to your university library,

you go online, and many university

libraries have chat rooms now,

and they will really help you find,

if not the actual source,

something that is quite similar.

Really the best tip is to

go to the introduction.

Go to a summary.

And look at what the paper

is trying to say,

and then you can actually

unpick it piece by piece.

It may be that actually the paper

really is too complex, because if it's

complex to a native speaker

or a non-native speaker,

generally it's something perhaps

you should be avoiding.

Students should really try to

avoid promo material - promotional material

that's dressed

up as theory.

And particular organizations

actually try to launch new ideas,

new concepts

and to get them accepted as -

if you like - solid theory,

when in effect they're

really promoting

their own new technology.

It's usually quite clear:

it doesn't add value to it,

it doesn't add depth to it,

it doesn't add breadth to it.

What it should be doing

is actually adding value almost

seamlessly to the paper.

The extra points

is where they've added:

significant justification,

new ideas,

being critical in

a positive way to the subject area,

and really showing that they've

understood that and dug

deeply into the underlying concepts.

Go the distance.