Research Essay 03

Creating a Bibliography
Now that you have your supervisor, topic and question, it is time to start answering the question. One
option would be to write whatever uninformed nonsense you feel about the question. This is a bad option.
In academic writing, we aim to be as informed as possible before writing our answer, so we will need to
research.

Oh no! More planning!

Research is more than typing a question into a search engine and hoping an answer comes up.
Research is an active process in which you will need to make judgements and inferences about the kinds
of information you will need, where you are likely to find it, and how much you can trust the authors.
A useful exercise is to think about the form in which you might find useful information: Is it likely to be in
a book? What sort of book? Are there related articles that might provide useful information? Business
Reports or ledgers? Personal Diaries? Government decrees or pamphlets? Graphs or diagrams?

Next, you must think about what sort of information you are likely to get from these sources. Or, to put
it another way, what is the value of the source to your research? If you find a diary, what sort of useful,
specific information do you expect to find in it? How might this specific information help you answer your
research question? If you find a business plan, what sort of information are you likely to find, and how
might you be able to use it? Perhaps, most importantly, what sort of information will probably be missing?
Is a business plan as useful as an earnings report? Why or why not?

The Search
Once you know what you are looking for, you can start to search for it. Don’t expect this to be a simple
process that you can rush. You will need to read a lot, and develop connections. You will need to try
many different paths to find the things you need. Most of all, you will need to be organised, you will need
to record where you find your information, and in many cases, you will need to save books, articles,
graphs and even whole web pages.

What tools can I use to find sources?

Search Engines You are going to be writing in English. Conduct your research in English too. Remember that
Search Engines are not sources… they are a tool to find sources.

Bibliographies Once you find one source, you can search through its bibliography to find more sources.
Each new source should have further reference sections, and you can quickly build up a full
library of sources.

Wikipedia Wikipedia is rarely a good source. It is however, very good for linking to other sources of
information. Every Wikipedia article has a “References” section at the bottom. This can be
used to find books, articles, websites etc.

Amazon Amazon is a great source for finding books that might be useful. Not only will a good search
in Amazon give you books that you could use, it also gives you publisher information, and
their availability in different formats.

Library Genesis http://gen.lib.rus.ec/ is an online library. It has thousands of ebooks and pdfs that you can
download for free. If you find a book/journal on Amazon or Google scholar but can’t afford to
buy it, try searching for it on libgen.

Scihub Scihub.tw is a website that allows you to access millions of academic journal articles. It is
heavily focused on science journals but there are thousands of humanities, art and literature
articles too. If you find an article on Google Scholar that you can’t access, get the DOI from
Google Scholar. Paste it into Scihub, and see if you can get access that way.
If you are having trouble finding Scihub, try this address for a link: whereisscihub.now.sh

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a Search Engine that is focused on academic sources and books.
Searching using Google Scholar can direct you to thousands of sources of information. Once
you find articles on Google Scholar, you can use libgen or Scihub to access them.
Research Essay 03 Research Essay 03
Creating a Bibliography Creating a Bibliography
Whenever you use information in an academic paper, you need to give readers an opportunity to check
this information for themselves. This means each piece of specific evidence will need to be cited (more EXAMPLE: Research Essay 03
on this in later lessons) and it also means that everything you use needs to be included in a bibliography.
Creating a Bibliography
Details Matter Student: Bilbo Baggins Essay Mr O’Brien
Bibliographies provide detailed information for readers. Information like: Supervisor:
• Author Family-name, Given-name.
Supervisor Does Ching Shih deserve the title of ‘the most successful pirate in History’?
• “Title of source.” Approved
• Title of the container/journal/site, Question:
• Publisher,
• Location of the source (such as URL or page range). Brainstorm Potential Sources and explain how they might help you answer your Research question.
• Publication Date.
• Sometimes, even the date you accessed the information. What sort of information What sort of source might
would I need to find? How would this info prove/disprove my thesis/premises? contain this information?
Each piece of information matters- Sometimes, books will be slightly different depending upon where Opinions of experts on If experts hold the opinion that Ching Shih was not successful, Historical podcasts that have
they are published, so you will have to include that information. Sometimes, internet sources are edited piracy. this would undermine my working thesis. If they suggest experts on to talk about their
and changed over time, so you will need to provide dates. Each type of information will require different someone other than CS then this would likely provide reasons area of expertise (The theme
for why & give me more criteria to judge it by. would need to be ‘piracy’ or
punctuation too! even ‘Ching Shih’ herself).
This may seem like a lot of work (and it is!), but each little detail helps readers check your information
more easily, and each detail done correctly helps make you more credible as an author. The size of Ching Shih’s If Ching Shih had a larger fleet or army than her competitors The introductory chapter of a
Good students pay attention to details! fleet/ army vs the size of then this would suggest she is more successful than them. book on Piracy in Asia or the
her competitors’. South Sea.

Ching Shih’s diaries or Ching Shih was clearly running a criminal organisation- she may A footnote in either:
How do I format my Bibliography? business records. have tracked her income or assets. If she had a lot of wealth this - a biography of Ching Shih
could suggest that she was successful. - a Wikipedia article on Ching
Providing a properly formatted Bibliography means paying attention to small details. Bibliographies Shih.
require specific information, provided in a very specific order, with specific punctuation.
Crime reports or decrees Authorities may have mentioned her organisation or given lists - Images or wanted posters on
To make it more complicated, there are many different ways of writing bibliographies. At university, from the government in of ships affected- this may give clues about how widespread her an historical archive website.
18th Century China. influence- if she was influential over a wide area or timespan, - Decrees from the Chinese
chances are you will all be required to use many different referencing systems depending on which then this shows she is successful. government that mention
university you attend. Sometimes, even within the same university, you will be required to format Piracy in the 18th Century.
bibliographies differently, depending upon the faculty you attend. The important thing is to find out which
referencing system your faculty uses, get familiar with how it works, and follow it. Claims by feminist Women are often forgotten in history. If historians claim that CS Online articles on ‘forgotten
historians that Ching was minimised due to sexism, this means that we can conclude women’ or ‘badass women in
Shih has been left out of that she had even more influence/success than the records history’
At ISC, we use a referencing system that tries to teach you the principles of clear writing and clear history. show.
referencing. The example sheet provided is done correctly, but you can find exactly how it works in
The ISC Reference Guide. Create a bibliography with at least FIVE sources. (At least 1x Book & 1x Online Source. No more than 1x Wikipedia Article)
This guide will give you detailed examples of how to reference books, articles, websites and more. Write this out using the HSANNU Reference guide (Details matter!)

Tips:
• Don’t just write in the first sources that pop into your head. Brainstorm a number of potential
sources, and what value they might have to you, then select the ones that work best.
• Students often make the mistake of thinking that the more the information comes from them
directly, the better it is. Unfortunately, this is not true. You want to include your own ideas, but that
is more credible when you show that you understand what other people think too. Including others
1. Antony, Robert. “Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China.” Institute of
East Asian Studies, Berkeley. 2003.
2. Bolelli, Daniele. “Episode 24: The Pirate Queen.” History on Fire Podcast, 14 Sep, 2017. historyonfirepodcast.com/
episodes/2017/9/14/episode-24-the-pirate-queen/.
3. Duncombe, Laura. “Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas.” Chicago Review
Press, Chicago. 2017.

ideas (and recognizing them) makes you more credible, not less! 4. Murray, Dian. “Pirates of the South China Coast: 1790-1810.” Stanford University Press, San Francisco. 1987.
• Read read read! Sometimes, conducting initial research will help you find further sources.
5. Unknown Author. “16 November 1807: Woman Becomes One Of World’s Most Powerful Pirates.” The History Channel, 2016.
Especially when you use other authors’ bibliographies. www.historychannel.com.au/this-day-in-history/woman-becomes-one-of-worlds-most-powerful-pirates/. Accessed 24 April
• Think carefully about the value of your sources. Ask yourself “What information am I looking for?” 2020.
“How will this source help me answer my question?”& “What sources would be best for this sort of
information?”
• Ask others for help. Many brains are better than one- talking to others about research methods
might help you find useful information. Even just looking at others’ bibliographies might help you Supervisor Mr O’Brien
find useful sources. Signature:
• Talk to your supervisor. This is why they are there- to help you!
Research Essay 03
Creating a Bibliography
Student: Essay
Vincent Mondin Vanessa Benaci
Supervisor:

Supervisor
Can writers use real events and implement them into their story?
Approved
Question:

Brainstorm Potential Sources and explain how they might help you answer your Research question.

What sort of information What sort of source might

would I need to find? How would this info prove/disprove my thesis/premises? contain this information?

Opinion of writers The opinion of the expert, in this case, authors and other writers is Reports, podcasts and
(authors) of using real essencial to get direct confirmation or disaproval of the use of real articles that have authors
events in their stories. events or not. They might expand on the topic as well and explain why explain real events inside
the real event may be hard or easy to implement stories.

The importance of
non-fiction text in
informing the public.
Authors organisation of
real events within a story.
The creativity behind
making relations of real life
to fictional.
Non-fiction books pose as an important part of literature, and of the Reports, articles, blogs,
daily lives of people. They are a source of information such as the news where authors analyse the
or in-depth analysis of events, distributing information to the reader that importance of using
may be new, from various perspectives and sources that prove to be events to tell stories.
true.
Organising the text is crucial in stories for various reasons, firstly you Reviews, books,
need to organise the real information, even in fiction, in a manner where newspapers, articles, and
your reader pays attention and understands the message being blog stories talk about how
passed. authors organise their
stories.
Even the smallest of ideas can be related to real events, writers can Books, movies, series,
use smaller ideas to make the story more compelling, extent, and fun reviews, opinion articles,
for a bigger crowd, including more historians, as these small details can sources that use info.
be analysed and reveal a true meaning behind the story. directly from the author.

Reason why authors Writers many times need either to practice or to come up with ideas to Authors (interviews),
would use real events for make a succeceful book. Therefore needing ideas. Having realistic podcasts, tv shows,
their story. events happening can help writers get ideas, and may help the book articles, reports that are
become popular, as real events are also looked frequently in the news. made by authors.

Create a bibliography with at least FIVE sources. (At least 1x Book & 1x Online Source. No more than 1x Wikipedia Article)
Write this out using the ISC Reference Guide (Details matter!)

1. Stuart, Gary. “The Ethics of Writing Novels about True Events.” The Ethics of Writing, 7 July 2020,
ethicsofwriting.com/2020/07/ethics-of-writing-novels-about-true-events/. Accessed 30 Mar. 2023.

2. Sharma, Yash. “Major Benefits of Reading Nonfiction Books.” I Read, I Write, 3 Aug. 2021,
dontbignorant.in/major-benefits-of-reading-nonfiction-books/. Accessed 30 Mar. 2023.

3. Phillips, Melanie. “How Story Structure Relates to the Real World.” The Storymind Writer’s Library, 8 Oct. 2018,
storymind.com/blog/how-story-structure-relates-to-the-real-world/. Accessed 30 Mar. 2023.

4. Truby, John. The Anatomy of Story : 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. 2007. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2008.

5. Nixon, Zoe. “The Niceties of Writing a Story Based on True Events.” Medium, 20 Jan. 2018,
writingcooperative.com/the-niceties-of-writing-a-story-based-on-true-events-e4e7c1dbe360. Accessed 30 Mar. 2023.

Supervisor
Vanessa Benaci
Signature: