Accessing information from both published and unpublished sources is central to all research. To find good sources, you need to hone your detective skills. Unfortunately, Hollywood has promoted the myth that good detectives follow their suspects in high-speed car or through glamorous affairs. Of course, that's just fantasy. Detectives must do actual research - paperwork and legwork - to track down leads. Writers are, in real sense, also detectives, constantly researching their own experiences and the experiences of others. Journalists, lawyers, psychologists, doctors, businesspeople, coaches, scientists, novelists - all sorts of people practice their skills in locating key bits of information and tracking down good leads.
When your hard work does yield a source that has good information and ideas on your subject, don't be temped to let that source take over your paper. If you start stringing together passages from only one or two key sources, you'll be summarizing rather than doing research. You'll be letting the sources tell you what to think, what information is important, or what conclusions to reach. So use the sources to support your point. Write your own paper; don't let the sources write the paper for you.
Documenting your sources is an important part of writing a research paper. Documentation takes place in two stages: first, in the body or text of your paper, you give credit to any material you have taken from your source. Then, at the end of the paper, you include the list of "Works Cited" or "Works Consulted" that gives fuller information about these sources for your reader. If your readers doubt the fact or statistics, they can check your sources for themselves. If your readers want more information, your documentation enables them to track down the sources.
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