A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

1. Source supports a claim with old evidence, but maybe you can offer new evidence.2. Source supports a claim with weak evidence, but maybe you can offer strongerevidence.CONFIRM UNSUPPORTED CLAIMS. You can prove something that a source has only assumedor speculated.Smith recommends visualization to improve sports performance, but a study of the mental activities of athletesshows why that is good advice.1. Source only speculates that X might be true, but maybe you can offer evidence to showthat it definitely is.2. Source assumes that X is true, but maybe you can prove it.APPLY A CLAIM MORE WIDELY. You can extend a position to new areas.Smith has shown that medical students learn physiological processes better when they are explained with manymetaphors rather than by just one. The same appears to be true for engineers learning physical processes.1. Source correctly applies his claim to one situation, but maybe it can apply to new ones.2. Source claims that X is true in a specific situation, but maybe it's true in general.4.1.2 Look for Creative DisagreementIt is even more important to note when you disagree with a source, because that might suggesta working hypothesis for your whole report. So instead of just noting that you disagree withits views, use that disagreement to encourage your own productive thinking. Here are somekinds of disagreement (these aren't sharply defined categories; many overlap).CONTRADICTIONS OF KIND. A source says something is one kind of thing, but maybe it'sanother kind.Smith says that certain religious groups are considered “cults” because of their strange beliefs, but those beliefsare no different in kind from standard religions.1. Source claims that X is a kind of Y (or like it), but maybe it's not.2. Source claims that X always has Y as one its features or qualities, but maybe it doesn't.3. Source claims that X is normal/good/significant/useful/moral/interesting/. . ., but maybeit's not.(You can reverse those claims and the ones that follow to state the opposite: though a sourcesays X is not a kind of Y, you can show that it is.)