This LibGuide was designed to provide you with assistance in your Eng 1110: College Composition course. Please click on the tabs above to access course resources. Contact Tensy Marcos-Bodker if you need more assistance with these resources or chat with a librarian using the chat window to the left.
Your professor may require certain types of sources, so it’s important to understand the differences between types of sources, such as a peer-reviewed article versus a popular one. It may also be helpful to think about at what stage of the research project a source may be useful. Reference sources, such as encyclopedias, are useful when reading for background information, but you’ll want to read more specialized sources and arguments when exploring your research question.
More important than identifying the type of source, however, is how you use them. Any type of source might be appropriate for a research project, depending on how you use it.
In discussing the usefulness of different types of sources, we will use the BEAM method:
Citation: Bizup, Joseph. “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing.” Rhetoric Review 27.1 (2008): 72-86. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 4 February 2014.