Helping You Write That Research Paper- Finding scholarly sources

Almost every student starting in high school has to write essays or papers. However, as a student climbs in terms of education (HS to Undergrad to Post-grad), the level of writing required quickly escalates. For example, high school students are often taught to summarize and repeat information that is given to them. While this is a good start in terms of learning how to write, it isn't productive because it does not further the argument and the rhetorical audience is simply being fed the same thing over and over again. In college, however, students are now taught to undertake research, synthesize the information, then complete an analysis, all in the name of furthering the discussion. 

So what makes writing college-level papers harder?

A common challenge with college-level papers is finding sources, especially scholarly, peer-reviewed sources. Scholarly sources are extremely important to a paper's effectiveness because they demonstrate the highest level of credibility. The rhetorical audience will more likely to find a paper with sources that are written/reviewed by people that specialize in that field to be convincing.

The challenge with finding scholarly sources.

The challenge with finding scholarly sources is that a simple Google search usually do not suffice. Google is more likely to find sources such as news or magazine articles, which may be credible, but not to the degree of a published or peer-reviewed source. In order to find scholarly sources, specific sites aimed towards peer-reviewed sources must be utilized.

My go-to websites for finding scholarly sources:

Examples of scholarly-source search tools that are completely free and can be used anywhere if you do not have access to a college campus.

https://eric.ed.gov/?

https://scholar.google.com/ (Highly Recommended!)

Examples of scholarly-source search tools that you can use on a college campus. Many colleges have their own tool and an easy Google search will find you your college's resource. These are some of the best tools, as they are provided by tuition dollars. Some of these sources do not allow you to view the full article when you are not on their respective campuses. 

https://libraries.psu.edu/

https://www.library.illinois.edu/

http://library.princeton.edu/