What evidence should i use to support my arguments?
Get your search for valid sources off to a great start!
Your sources were not academically valid.
You need to draw upon scholarly evidence to support your points.
If you’ve ever received this feedback for an assignment, you are not alone!
It’s one of the most common things students see when they get their assignments back.
It’s annoying but it’s not fatal! It just means you need to revisit your approach to researching your assignments.
Many students get this feedback because they’ve “just Googled” stuff. You shouldn’t just “Google” it.
Google is a great resource for when you’re looking for stuff in everyday life. But, when you’re researching an assignment, it is not the best place to begin.
Because your assignment sources should be peer reviewed.
That means that a source was scrutinized by a panel of academic experts before it was published. This goes some way to ensuring that it’s valid and reliable.
Most academic books and journal articles go through a peer review process.
Peer review is a kind of academic gold standard.
It’s highly unlikely that peer reviewed items will contain wild, unsubstantiated claims or data that isn’t correct. So, they’re safe to use in your assignments!
The results you get when you do a search of general Google might not be peer reviewed, in fact, it will throw up all kinds of stuff that isn’t peer reviewed.
So, where do you begin in finding sources for your assignments, sources that are peer reviewed?
Three key places:
The reading list for the class, module or unit you are studying. On that list will be core or essential reading. That’s your starting point, read that stuff first and use it in your assignment.
Use the core reading to find more items by doing a citation search. Go to Google Scholar. In the search bar, type in the title of the core reading (you might need to type in the author surname as well if the title is a bit general). Find the core reading in the list of results. Click on “Cited by” underneath the reference. That will take you to newer, more recent items that have referenced the core reading. Browse through that and pick out the relevant interesting stuff for your assignment.
Keyword searching. Your assignment will have a title or a question that you need to answer. Write it down and pick out the nouns – the words that represent people, places or things. These are keywords, and you can use them to do a more general search on Google Scholar. Grab a copy of my free Search Keywords PDF to help you. Also, think about different terms that people use to describe your topic. For example, in my field, “domestic abuse” is sometimes referred to as “domestic violence”, “intimate partner violence” or “coercive control”. Are there different ways of describing things in your area too?
So, there you go, three strategies to help you avoid that dreaded “your sources were not academically valid” feedback!
For more detailed guidance, check out my YouTube video below!