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You are now required to record the full bibliographical details for 3 of the sources you have identified. Two of these sources must be websites and the third source must be a source other than a website. Examples of non-website sources: a book, magazine, PDF, pamphlet, video or interview. Using the URLs that you already copy-pasted into your Research Questions table, retrieve the full details for the three tables.
In this post:
1. 2 website sources
Dates must all be captured in full date format: 11 September 1971.
Well-written articles from reliable sources should include all the required information. If, for example, the author’s name is not available, it is possibly an indication that the person who wrote the piece is not an authority on the topic and that you should consider looking for a better source. You will, in any case, be asked to evaluate each source and one of the criteria is authority — if you use a source by an unknown author, you will not be able to fulfil that requirement.
In the post Phase 1 report outline you created 2 tables for recording the full source details of 2 of your website sources in your Appendices:
| Source for Question 1: website | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | |
| Name of website | |
| Name of webpage | |
| Date created (& last updated) | |
| Date accessed | |
| URL | |
- Author(s)
- Note specifically that I have included rows to record the name of the website and the name of the webpage used in two separate rows as separate pieces of information (you will need both pieces of information).
- Date accessed: the date on which you read and summarised the article
- URL: the fully qualified website address
2. 1 not-a-website source
The third table is for the details of a third, non-website source, such as a book, PDF, interview, video, or podcast.
2.1 Book
This must be a real, printed book, not an e-book or an online book extract. You must include a scan of the book’s cover and the inside page with the publishing details in your Resource Material folder.
| Source for Question 2: book | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | |
| Title | |
| Date published | |
| Publisher | |
2.2 PDF downloaded from a website
To be honest, the easiest “not-a-website” source to use is a PDF. You must download the PDF to your Resource Material folder.
Word’s Source Manager allows you to create a source of the type Document from a Web site. The details for a PDF source are identical to those of a website:
| Source for Question 3: PDF | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | |
| Name of website | |
| Name of webpage | |
| Date created (& last updated) | |
| Date accessed | |
| URL | |
2.3 Interview
If you conducted an interview (in person, via telephone or e-mail):
| Source for Question 4: Interview | |
|---|---|
| Interviewee | |
| Title | |
| Interviewer | |
| Date of Interview | |
Remember that this is a formal report so you must type dates in the full, long date format, e.g.: 25 April 2024.
3. Looking under every stone…
Sometimes this information is not readily available in the source material. If for example, the author of the page does not appear on the page, inspect the source code, and check to see if the relevant information exists in the meta tags.
3.1 Chrome extensions
You may find it easier to quickly uncover the information you are looking for by using one of the following Chrome extensions:
3.2 Metadata
- Open the webpage in Google Chrome
- Right-click on the webpage & click on the View page source option.
- Press CNTRL+F on the keyboard to search the source code for meta tags (or part thereof) such as:
authordate
Your search might then return the following commonly used meta tags:
<meta name=“author” content=“Another Learner”>
Next step: Creating your Sources »