Information Sources

Information is delivered to us in many forms. Some forms are a part of our lives such as Newspapers and Magazines, but some are only used when there is a need for it. When it comes to Researching, we have to go through all kinds of Information Sources to get what we want.

Newspapers are one of the most common mediums of information sources available. Local events and incidents are easily found in newspapers without any hassle. When researching about a social issue or something similar, it would be wise to go through the newspapers and understand how the local community goes through the same issue. The disadvantage to this information is that Newspapers are not 100% accurate with the facts. The industry publishes what ever the reader has the interest for and sometimes the news and facts deviate from the truth.

Scholarly Articles and Books are two of the most reliable ways of finding research information. Its also one of the most recommended information sources as well. These peer reviewed articles are written by professionals who are at their best in their fields. It would be interesting to go through different articles of the same topic and understand different view points. This would be very helpful during a research process and will give a better understanding of your own thesis.

Online encyclopedias hold an enormous amount of information and are freely and easily available to the public. Its the first step for a pre-researching process. Encyclopedias do not go deeply into a topic, instead they describe and define a common issue or an object. So most of the time its hard to find a topic specific page that would help the research, but it does help to support facts that are needed. Encyclopedias can only help a research at its first basic level.

Magazines are a popular mass communication media and its vastly growing as well. Only a few percentage of magazines can actually be used as reference or sources to a research because most of the magazine industry is about entertainment and gossip!

If the research is related to an issue or common incidents that the government keeps public records on, then  Government Documents can provide reliable, accurate facts and information to support the thesis. It available to the public for use. These are facts and data so its easy to extract the relevant information and manipulate it according to the thesis.

Every thesis has a point when looked from a given perspective. Even the most senseless thesis or argument can have a surviving factor for someone with a different perspective. Information is important when doing a research, but the means of using the information extracted from sources can create a stronger research paper.