Identifying & Evaluating Sources
During your time at Holy Cross, you may find yourself using a combination of both popular and scholarly sources.
A popular resource is a resource for 'popular' consumption -- it has been written so that most people can easily read and understand it. This might include newspapers or magazines, some books, and some journals written for people in specific jobs. While there is usually an editor who checks these sources for good writing and for errors, this is mostly done by a single person rather than a group. Popular articles are usually written by journalists or professional writers, although sometimes they are written by experts on a specific topic.
Scholarly sources are written by experts on a particular subject (for example, a professor or other researcher). They also go through an extra process of review and approval by a group of other experts before they can be published. Usually, scholarly articles are written in 'academic-ese', meaning they are full of technical jargon, and designed to be read by other scholars. You will probably find yourself using many scholarly sources in your other Holy Cross classes. However, because scholarly sources take a long time to be approved and published, they are not good sources for current news. You will usually find academic articles published in professional journals, which are often behind paywalls and hard to access freely outside of university settings.
No matter what you're researching or what kinds of information you're working with, you should always interrogate your sources. Situate your source within the context of the timeline, the audience, the content, etc. Think of it like doing a background check!
- Source Checklist WorksheetDownload this PDF for a copy of this worksheet to use for your research!
What is a Reference Source?
What is a Reference Resource?
A Reference Source is usually a physical or digital document that you would refer to for more information about a topic. When doing academic research, it is sometimes much better to consult a reference resource than to type your question into google. Reference resources are usually curated around specific topics, making them more credible and informative than the advertisement suggestion that will pop up at the top of your google search!
Examples of Reference resources:
- Dictionaries
- Thesauruses
- Encyclopedias
- Almanacs
- Indexes
- Concordances
- Atlases
Recommended Reference Sources for English
Digital Reference Resources
These are accessible online to search in at any time!
- OED: Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Considered the authoritative dictionary of the English language.
- Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window
Biographies of novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalist and scriptwriters, from the early 1900s to present.
- Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series This link opens in a new window
Biographies of and other information about writers currently active in poetry, fiction and nonfiction, journalism, drama, television and movies.
- Oxford Reference Books: Literature This link opens in a new window
Literature encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference books, published by Oxford University Press. Some books limited to 5 users at one time. Please close the website when you are done.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (4 ed.)Online dictionary of literary terms available through Oxford Reference books: Literature.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography Online This link opens in a new window
Biographies of and essays on influential literary figures.
Physical Reference Resources
These resources are available in the Dinand library reading room as physical resources. You may use them for up to three hours within the library walls. If you'd like to use them please feel free to take them from the shelves! Please just be sure to put them on a cart or return them to the library front desk for proper re-shelving when you are done.
- Cyclopedia of World AuthorsProvides biographical sketches of, and bibliographical references for, more than two thousand writers and lists their principal works. 1997 Edition.
- The Princeton Handbook of Poetic TermsThe entries illuminate crucial critical concepts, genres, forms, movements, and poetic elements, adding up to a resource that is authoritative and broad in scope, yet convenient for use in literature and writing courses. 1983 Edition
- The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and PoeticsEvaluates 106 national poetries, with updated and new entries, including "Afro-American poetry" and "Feminist poetics". 1993 Edition
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary TermsContaining over 1,000 of the most troublesome literary terms encountered by students and general readers, this gem of a book gives clear and often witty explanations to terms such as hypertext, multi-accentuality, and postmodernism. 2004 2nd Edition.