There are plenty of websites out there for people to read summaries, so that's never a problem. But when it comes around for the time to write essays, what do you do? If you truly didn't pay as much attention as you would have liked to during class, where is a reliable sources for quotes and such?

TonyL2

England1953 Posts

November 10 2009 00:46 GMT

Depends on what books but Spark Notes

NrG.NeverExpo

Canada2114 Posts

November 10 2009 00:47 GMT

Wikipedia xD

Aresien

United Kingdom305 Posts

November 10 2009 01:00 GMT

One thing I do is go to wikipedia and go to the references at the relevant page (near the bottom). Usually some good sources there.

Don't use wiki itself though!

*edit* Just to clarify, use wikipedia to find references (papers, books, articles) on the subject matter, not use wikipedia's info itself.

Piy

Scotland3152 Posts

November 10 2009 01:06 GMT

Using online libraries is good. Also try and find essays and critical analysis of what you've got to write on written by other people and track down their sources as best you can online.

Most professors at the higher levels generally prefer fewer exact quotes and more referenced facts and opinions in my experience though.

Ingenol

United States1328 Posts

November 10 2009 01:09 GMT

On November 10 2009 10:06 Piy wrote:
Using online libraries is good. Also try and find essays and critical analysis of what you've got to write on written by other people and track down their sources as best you can online.

Most professors at the higher levels generally prefer fewer exact quotes and more referenced facts and opinions in my experience though.

Really? I'm sure it depends on the type of material, but most of my humanities classes (admittedly few since I was a science major) seemed to prefer primary sources.

Piy

Scotland3152 Posts

November 10 2009 01:20 GMT

On November 10 2009 10:09 Ingenol wrote:

Show nested quote +

Really? I'm sure it depends on the type of material, but most of my humanities classes (admittedly few since I was a science major) seemed to prefer primary sources.

Well for Primary Sources you'd definitely need to quote and explain, I thought the OP was talking more about critics/historian views on things.

Those things can still be found in online journals and Primary Source journals though. The uni I go to has it's own database and subscribes to some, so I don't really know any free ones, but looking round online I'm sure there'd be some.

azndng

United States344 Posts

November 10 2009 01:31 GMT

you should clarify what you actually want to quote.

bc if i'm reading your post correctly, its saying that a person uses online sites (spark notes etc etc) to get a feel for the material, which are mostly novels, stories, books. then in that case, you would actually quote from the story to support your thesis (or argument).

however, if you're writing a paper that needs citations on literary criticisms, you can basically use the university's databases and search for it that way--if you wanna use scholarly journals. You can even search your university's library stacks.

as for reliability issues, i wouldn't suggest using wiki at all. you can use them to help steer you to hard copy sources. but most

Ingenol

United States1328 Posts

November 10 2009 01:40 GMT

On November 10 2009 10:20 Piy wrote:

Show nested quote +

Ohhh, I see. Yeah I totally agree with you on that.

Carefree

United States1571 Posts

November 10 2009 01:45 GMT

#10

I'm still mostly writing on pretty basic material - it's an intro level class at university. So after skipping most of the reading, it's difficult to know where to go to find quotes for reference (so basically quotes that sum up the author's views)... say Karl Marx, for example.