Discovery and Attribution: The Hunt Is On

An Ounce of Organization

Keeping Source Cards

When you take a trip, you probably take photos or keep a journal, so you can remember where you have been. Your source cards are like the photos and travelogue entries you keep on this writing discovery journey. They tell you where you have been, what you found there, and how you got there, so you can retrace your steps later (and credit your sources appropriately).

background research; source cards

Keep a source card for every source you examine that you may want to go back to later. You will use the source cards to create the Works Cited page later in the discovery/presentation process. The Works Cited page is one half of the ATTRIBUTION portion of your project.

The source card below corresponds to the source that helped me generate the sample specific questions on the previous page. Click on each column description or the pop-up icon on the left side for further explanation about what to record on that part of the source card. Examine the right side as an example of what material to enter in each row.

NOTE: You will learn more about primary and secondary sources and reliability of sources in the next section of this unit.

Location (URL, Library, etc)	*http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/faq/mediaviolstats.asp*
Author(s) or Editor(s) (Last name, First name) of the Main Source.	None listed
Title of Main Source or Website	National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center
Author(s) or Editor(s) of the Article or Chapter	None listed
Title of Article or Chapter or Web page	“The Link Between Violent Television and Movies and Aggressive Behavior”
City of Publication: Name of Publisher	Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control
Date of Publication or Date Accessed	Last updated 2/28/2008
Page numbers	NA
Type of source: Primary or Secondary	Primary		Secondary
Reliability of source	Very reliable	Fairly reliable	Somewhat Reliable	Unreliable
Summary or description of the information the source provides.	The source gives statistics and has links to studies and other facts about this topic.
How useful will this source be in answering research questions?	Very useful	Fairly useful	Somewhat useful	Background information only

Answer the following review questions to see if you understand the importance of keeping track of your sources.

Which sources should you make source cards for?

All sources that you get any kind of information from and all the sources that you may want to look back at later.

What are the source cards used for later in the discovery/presentation process?

They are used for ATTRIBUTION when you create the Works Cited page.

Now use the source card template at the end of the Writing Assignment: A Spark worksheet to keep track of your own sources. You should gather and create cards for between five and ten sources total. You will be required to submit five source cards for the assignment. Copy and paste the template to create additional source cards. Download this template and use one card for each source you gather. For the best results, fill out the cards completely.

Writing Assignment Worksheet

At the end of this section, you will turn in this Worksheet to your instructor to check your audience, purpose, your specific questions, and source cards are on the right track.