why when are we doing a research paper essay paper we need a lot of sources?

having a lot of sources on a research paper gives you a multitude of viewpoints and allows you to form your own opinion on the subject and oftentimes see the larger picture- which allows you to personalize your term paper instead of simply repeating one persons point of view, which may be entirely wrong.

school is the same way, sometimes you hear a story - do you simply take one persons word- or do you listen to several different people?

So that you actually do your research rather than finding one good book and just shortening and restating it, and so that you get varied information: in most topics, it’ll take a few books to get everything, and you’ll find something new everywhere you look. You just happen to have a topic that’s pretty concise most of the time. Plus, it’s sort of a self-check thing. If one source tells you one thing is the definite cause of anorexia, but all of the other sources say there are multiple causes, it’s a good thing you looked at more than one source, right? Books and information can be wrong or out of date, so it’s always a good idea to make sure.

to answer the second part of your question- when you are looking for a DEFINITION of something, you will find exactly what you did- pretty much the same thing between sources. now if you dig further into the causes and the treatment of anorexia you may begin to see different perspectives and theories emerging. if you read articles from seveal different doctors you can then form your own ideas for your essay.

Your research should show that you have learned and taken advantage from the expertise of other specialists who are authorities in their field.

If you have checked 9 books and they all say basically the same thing, then at best, 8 of those books are just quoting ( plagiarizing? ) the original research of one (group of) investigator(s), and it only really shows that you have consulted the published opinion of that one original academic (collaboration).

Find, read, learn from, and cite the original papers that did some original research - much of which will be published on-line as .pdf files or HTML renderings. Try this link (if it is not removed) for starters:

http://funadvice.com/r/bei4ifakfco

– Good Luck - Majikthise.

The link has been automatically shortened by funadvice, but it does work and recreates a useful set of links to useful sources with original research.

Majikthise.

They give you these options so your opinion has different resources to look back at. Also so your papper has multiple sopportive ideas for the topic.

Because research papers are not supposed to be done from books. The book is basically a long research paper, it has found a bunch of sources and has made a book of it. You are supposed to getting the original sources and using that information.