Information Needs

The beginning of research involves information needs. Information needs are facts a person wants, needs, or expects from a source.  Meeting those needs is what you’re going to do with sources as you complete your research project.

Here are those needs:

• To learn more background information
• To answer your research question(s)
• To convince your audience that your answer is correct or, at least, the most reasonable answer
• To describe the situation surrounding your research question for your audience and explain why it’s important
• To report what others have said about your question, including any different answers to your research question.

The verbs in the list above tell you exactly how you’ll use sources to carry out your research and create your final product: to learn, answer, convince, describe, and report.

But you won’t be doing any of that alone. Your sources will give you information with which to reason. They’ll also give you direct quotes and information to summarize and paraphrase as you create your final product. In other words, your sources will support you every step of the way during your research project.

Remember, the idea you want to prove drives your writing project. Sources are used to support the points that you are making; sources shouldn’t be the dominant voice in your writing, your voice should be.

Thinking About Roles of Sources

Consider the following directions from a sample assignment:

Your paper should cite a minimum of 8 articles comprised of:

• • At least 2 peer-reviewed articles
  • 3 (no more than 6) popular articles (magazine or newspaper)
  • 2 (no more than 4) electronic sources (website or blog)

So you know you need sources. But directions like those aren’t much help with what to actually do with the sources in your paper. Even with credible sources, it’s very difficult to write a persuasive paper until you learn the roles that sources play—how you can use them—within your paper.

With most research papers and essays, the unstated expectation is that you will use your sources to make an argument. That’s because most scholarly writing makes an argument. You will be arguing that your answer to your research question (your thesis) is correct, or at least reasonable.

For both professional and student researchers, successful scholarly writing uses sources to fill various roles within the research paper, journal article, book, poster, essay, or other assignment.

Those roles all have to do with rhetoric—the art of making a convincing argument. Putting your sources to work for you in these roles can help you write in a more powerful, persuasive way.

Continue Reading: 21.2 Types of Sources