Analyzing Secondary Sources and Connecting them to Primary Research

Last week you collected primary data by observing, documenting, and organizing your language use and exposure within a 24 hour period. This week, you will switch to analyzing this data; in order to do this, you need to conduct secondary research within your project’s topic, namely literacy and language use. To help you with this, you have been provided with four secondary sources (all peer-reviewed academic articles) that relate to your topic.

Before you create this Discussion post, you first need to do the following:

• Read each article and take notes about any points that seem to relate to your primary data. For example, when Lowi discusses codeswitching, does this remind you of how you shift between various types of language use, depending on who you are talking to? Does Garcia’s focus on multilingualism speak to your own experience with language or reflect the multiple languages you hear when you are out and about in the city? Highlight these points of connections—even if they are small.
• Review your notes and the points of overlap between your primary data and the information provided by the sources. What connections are strongest? Which interest you the most? Which would you like to explore in your Social Science Research Report (SSRR)? What point or theory would you like to focus on in your SSRR?

Once you have completed the work above, write a post where you offer the following:

• A review of each article and the points where they connect (even tangentially) to your primary data.
  • Do this with bullet points and include the page numbers where the information you are citing can be found (you will need this later).
  • For example, each article review should should look like this:
    • Article Title 
    • Connection point #1 to your primary data (include a quote and the corresponding APA in-text citation with page number)*
    • Connection point # 2 to your primary data (include a quote and the corresponding APA in-text citation with page number)*

* Make sure you follow the directions for APA in-text citations found in the APA In-Text Citations, How-To Video from Excelsior College Writing Center. 

• Name the preliminary analytical claim you will make about your primary data. Remember–this should be derived from the secondary sources. It should be a claim that you can analyze and discuss in your SSRR.
  • For example, perhaps you want to focus on how you code switch and what this reflects on the connections among language use, race, and class.  
• Provide a plan for your next steps.
  • What further evidence (secondary sources) do you need to find to bolster this claim? Which databases and key terms will you use to find these sources?

After you have submitted your initial post, read and respond to the posts of at least two other students. Within your responses, do your best to fully engage with their posts by responding to a specific point they made: offer advice about their plan, suggest a revision of their claim, offer ideas about where to find additional evidence, etc.

Your initial post is due on Thursday; your two responses to your peers are due on Sunday.