A Source by any other Name

During the two high school classes which I felt defined my growth as a writer the most, AP Language and AP Literature, my two teachers stressed the same ideas which were presented in this chapter. For our junior year research project, we had to do specific papers before we even started forming paragraphs which just evaluated our sources. We would have to list the credentials of the author, what makes them a valid source of information, what other works they have produced, whether they have a bias within the work, and some other points which I seem to have blocked out in favor of forgetting. I was taught to look to the .edu's and .org's over a .com and this has been a key tip which I have utilized henceforth and was glad to see the appearance of it in the chapter. I wouldn't call myself a completely versatile researcher. I tend to rely on the same type of sources as I have on past topics and call it good. I am a scanner, I try to extract the most relevant information with as little effort as possible; see a seemingly good quote and into the essay pool it goes without much second thought. I do try to use the most credible sources I can, should I face the wrath of Mrs. Wright's mighty red pen, but it is so hard to comprehend and dumb down a very specified field-related source, such as an academic journal or scholarly book, which although they are considered to be the most reliable, which is why I think most students tend to avoid using them. 

 In high school we had access to multiple district-provided databases which were much more helpful in finding specific topic related documents and sources. And now that I'm in college I no longer have access to those same databases, so if anyone coughcoughwinkwink has any independent databases they use and would be willing to share information it would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if BSU offers a school database with specific functions, probably a question for someone in the library. The loss of databases which were once readily available and are no longer is a great disadvantage to students who had to rely on them previously.