English 102 Source Analysis Assignment
The essence of a good research paper/proposal/report is good source material. You familiarized yourself with credible sources from a range of viewpoints in order to best understand the topic you selected. Since evaluating sources requires close inspection and thought, we are going to complete a brief Source Analysis which summarizes and evaluates what you feel are two credible sources (article, editorial, book or other source type) on two opposite sides of the claim you have selected. For example, if my claim is that “Marijuana legalization would benefit our country”, then what I would explore is one source in agreement with my claim and another source whose author disagrees with my claim. I’ve included a sample Source Analysis on our d2l site. This document is likely to be anywhere between one and a half pages to two pages, depending upon the size and scope of the sources.
Provide a brief introduction of your subject. Here you might wish to include your position on the subject and/or why the subject was of interest to you.
For each of the two sources you discuss, follow the introduction with a summary of the piece, introducing the source by author’s full name and credentials and providing the name of the article or editorial you are discussing, just as is done in the sample on Desire2Learn. Provide a brief summary of the piece in this paragraph, including direct quoting of the author as well as paraphrase, as is done in the sample essay.
Additionally, assess the evidence that the writer uses by type in Chapter 33 (fact, statistic, example, authority, anecdote, scenario, case study and observation, textual evidence, and visual evidence).
A conclusion paragraph should highlight your overall opinion of the effectiveness of the sources. This should be very brief.
Double space the document and use MLA format.
Submit the document to the Dropbox in D2L. Check the report you will receive back from Turnitin (usually within a few hours); if any paraphrase is too close to the original, be sure to revise it, and let me know.
