📝 Research Paper

In your persuasive research essay you must include:

• 6-10 sources (within the last 5 years, if possible)
• Cite all sources in MLA style 
• You may include 1 internet source out of 4 sources (or 2 out of 10)

Use scholarly journal articles and books. Do not use popular magazines or newspapers

Topics

1.   🛢 Canadian Pipelines - yes or no.

2.  🦒  Zoos - yes or no.

3.   ⚖️ Death penalty in Canada - yes or no.

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Strengths

• Books provide a in-depth investigation of a topic
• Some books are written by experts in the field (e.g. your textbooks) and cite the sources they use.

Weaknesses

• They take a long time to write and publish, so information may not be as current as some other sources.
• Not all books take scholarly approaches to the topic or cite their sources.
• Some books do go through a review process involving other experts in the field (e.g. textbooks and books published by university presses or academic publishing companies), but that isn't always the case.

Tips for finding books

• Not all of the books in the MRU Library are scholarly - look for ones that list the authors and what universities they are affiliated with, and provide references throughout. Use LibrarySearch to search for both print and electronic books in our collection.

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Strengths:

• There are a lot of useful sources online, including documents from governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Amnesty International, and inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) like the United Nations
• It would be potentially embarrassing for these organizations to post incorrect information, so is some control around what gets published/posted. However, we wouldn't consider them to be peer reviewed.

Weaknesses:

• Not all of the pages on government or NGO websites are updated frequently - always check for the date it was last updated.
• Sometimes these sources do not provide references or citations, or list the authors involved in their creation.

Search tips:

• Try to identify which organizations, departments or groups do work or research related to your topic. Search for documents and websites from those specific agencies. For example, First Nations organizations, provincial governments, federal government departments, environmental groups and energy industry organizations are all writing about pipelines.
• Sometimes searching for sites with URLs ending in .ca, .org, or .edu is helpful in identifying websites associated with good quality, research-based educational, professional, or expert information (but this is not 100% foolproof so be careful and evaluate every site you find).

These advanced Google search options can help you find useful, credible information on the open web.

Use site: to look for resources from trustworthy web domains

(NOTE: you still need to evaluate the info you find - not all sites ending in .org are necessarily reliable, accurate or unbiased.)

• site:gc.ca = Canadian gov't
• site:alberta.ca = Alberta gov't
• site:gov = US gov't
• site:edu = US universities
• site:ac.uk = UK universities
• site:edu.au = Australian universities

Example searches:

renewable energy policy site:gc.ca

climate action site:un.org

Other options

• allintitle:social media privacy teens = words after allintitle: must appear in the title of the page (example)
• allintext:social media privacy undergraduates = words after allintext: must appear in the page text (example)

Citation Resources

• Cite Sources: Learn the correct way to cite sources by using these guides, tutorials, and videos.
• Referencing Webinars: APA & MLA. Referencing Webinars are 75 minutes long.  Registration is required.
• Online Appointments: Personalized online 30-minute appointments with a Learning Strategist.