Chapter 2 Summary - The Bedford Researcher

Mike Palmquist starts out chapter 2 in his book, The Bedford Researcher, with a comparison between exploring your topic and a public meeting on a controversial issue. This analogy he uses makes this first part of the chapter on creating a plan to explore and discuss your topic easy to understand. Palmquist spends almost the rest of the chapter discussing different ways to obtain and review sources, things like your library's online catalog and library shelves; which, contain different books, articles in scholarly journals, articles in trade and other professional journals, magazines, newspapers, theses and dissertations, microfilm and microfiche, and DVD's. Palmquist mentions even more different types of sources that are in your local library ultimately getting his point across that libraries are excellent sources of information. He also recommends newsstands, databases, and the web. The last part of the chapter Palmquist discusses focusing on a single issue within your topic by identifying conversations, assessing your interest, and finally choosing and issue. Through the different methods that Palmquist describes in this chapter writers new and old will feel confident in being able to locate a variety of sources and choosing an issue that is interesting to them and their future readers.