Invention - Find Good Sources
When you are looking for sources, try this:
1) Find the keywords
- Read the Japanese Wikipedia page
- Google the topic in Japanese
- Translate the main idea keywords into English.
- Read the English Wikipedia page to find the keywords in English
- Make a list
2) Search for those keywords
For example, in animals essay, use the country-keyword combination
- e.g. Bengal Tiger hunting
- e.g. Galapagos penguin global warming
- e.g. plastic bags sea pollution
- e.g. Syrian Refugee destruction of hospitals
Search options
- Various Googles
- Google English: https://google.com
- Google Japanese: https://google.co.jp
- Google News: http://news.google.com
- Remember you can
- Limit it to governmental sites (“site:gov” or “site:.gov.jp”)
- Limit it to university sites (“site:ac.jp” or “site:ac.jp”)
- Limit it to recent articles using Search Tools
- Limit it to exact matches with quotes “”. See the difference this makes:
- amazon “ngo japan”
- “amazon ngo” japan
- If you find something good, follow the links it uses, maybe you can use them too.
3) Trim and save
- You probably found too much. Skim quickly and drop anything not useful.
- Save the PDF (or PRINT the web page as PDF)
- It’s easier to take notes on a PDF
- If the original article is moved,you still have it
4) Avoid bad sources
You can READ these for your own information, but don’t USE them in your essay:
- Dictionaries
- Wikipedia
- Any other kind of Wiki that anyone can edit.
- Any other kind of “pedia”, including normal Encyclopaedias.
- Any “question answering” site, including:
- Quora answers
- Yahoo answers
- About.com
- MOst of your sites should be
- High Quality News Sites
- NGO reports
- Government reports
- High quality personal websites by experts
- Academic articles you have read (maybe in Japanese) on your courses
- Books (maybe later, for your dissertation)
Next, note taking!
- See note taking sheet.