I can’t figure out how to use a source!

For PowerPapers’s writers, using sources effectively has become almost second nature. For students, knowing how to find a good a source and knowing how to use it are different skills that sometimes seem to be separated by miles or even just one very large wall.

Whether you have a required source or have located one that you want to use, you still need to know how to engage the work and use it in your paper. In order to know how to use the source, the first thing you need to consider is what type of work you are producing. In some cases, you may need a punchy quote, you may need solid statistics, or you might need an academic explanation of a complex topic. You might also need combinations of these things or something else altogether. In any case, the first step is to determine you need. Then begin reading or reviewing the text with that goal in mind. Once you know what you want to use, determine whether you need the work intact as a quote, or if you only need the information contained there.

Sometimes you do not know where to begin your paper; in those cases, choosing a good source and then using it as the basis for the subject and contents of your paper is another great option. If that is what you’re working on, then it can be good to use both a strong quote and a bit of analysis or a statistic. In order to expand upon the work in the source, think about both the elements in the work and what they describe in the world. It is important to be detailed and expansive in your descriptions, don’t assume that others see the references that you see or know what you know. Take the time to describe them, and show the reader not just the things you see as connected but the path that connects them.