University Writing Program

Source Information Form

Overview

You have to know a source’s position—also known as its stance or thesis—to put it in conversation with other sources. Understand each author’s or co-authors’ arguments and point of view. What are their claims, evidence and rationale? Be sure you can answer: Who are they? What questions do they ask? Why are they asking (Motive)? What claim(s) do they make? How do they argue their thesis? What evidence do they depend on?

Instructions

Uusing two or more of your own sources, record what you need to know to introduce them intelligently to your readers and put them in conversation with each other and yourself. Use the Template to create a Source Information Form for each source. Refer to the guidelines below for an Empirical Study in IMRAD Format, and for a Non-Empirical Scholarly Article or Book Chapter, and read through the examples.

Empirical Study in IMRAD Format
  1. Review key resource:  How to Read a Science Paper (video 34 min) with Lauren Buckley and example paper (PDF) used in video. 
  2. First page. Who are the authors? What’s their point of view? When did they do the work? Where did they publish (name of journal)? 
  3. Abstract. A good one will echo the IMRAD sequence and answer basic questions. What do they want to find out?  Is there a hypothesis? Why does it matter (motive, justification)? How will they do it (Method)?  What are the findings (Results and Discussion)? What do they think it means (Discussion)? 

  4. Introduction including literature review. Answers motive and contextualizes with references to previous work. Sometimes states hypotheses. 

  5. Method.  What they did to find out.

  6. Results.  What they found out

  7. Discussion Their argument about what they think it means and the consequences.

Make sure you can answer:
  • Who?  Authors, qualifications
  • What are they trying to find out?
  • Why (Motive)?
  • How? Method: steps in detail of their procedure(s)
  • When?  Where?  
  • Results? Findings: what the inquiry described in Method shows.
  • Limitations and conflicts of interest, if any.
  • Discussion: What do they think the results mean? and “So what?” The discussion or conclusion may include a specific call to action. 
  • Position (thesis): What is the claim they argue in the Discussion supported by what evidence?
Non-Empirical Scholarly Article or Book Chapter
  1. Scholarly
    • History
    • Government/Politics/Law
    • Detailed Business Plan or Case Study published in a scholarly journal or by a business school
    • Literature and Literary Theory
    • Other humanistic fields such as Art History,  Theater, Philosophy, Religion, African-American Studies
    • Women’s Studies/Feminist Theory/Gender Theory
    • Editorial or Opinion essay in a scientific publication
  2. Non-Scholarly
    • Report by a government agency or private think tank or NGO. May be very well researched and supported but not published in peer reviewed journal. 
    • Memoir —one person's account of events
    • Journalism — Articles,  Editorials, Op-Ed Essays
Make sure you can answer:
  • Position (thesis)
  • Who?   Author(s), qualifications
  • What are they trying to find out? 
  • What Analytical Questions are they asking?
  • Why?  Motive
  • How do the authors justify their claims? What is their evidence and argument?  How do they support their thesis?

Examples

  1. Source Information Form for an Empirical Study  in IMRAD Format (PDF)
    Acikalin, M. Y., Watson, K. K., Fitzsimons, G. J., & Platt, M. L. (2018). Rhesus Macaques Form Preferences for Brand Logos Through Sex and Social Status Based Advertising. PLOS ONE, 13(2). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193055
  2. Source Information Form for a Scholarly Journal Article (PDF)
    Gill, R. (2008). Empowerment/Sexism: Figuring Female Sexual Agency in Contemporary Advertising. Feminism & Psychology, 18(1), 35-60.

Templates

  1. Source Information Form (DOCX) — blank
  2. Source Information Form Template (GDOC) — creates and opens a new copy of the form in Google Docs

 

Doug Kirshen 2023