Always Check Your Sources
Important lesson learned. I'm about to dig into the project of reading through the Healthcare legislation that has created such a ridiculous public uproar because I'm no longer trusting any third-party sources, but I tell myself that I have to get my Nonfiction Proposal done first, 'cause I've been putting it off for way too long.
In my own piece, I reference the works of the well-known Doctor Balslotto of the University of Chicago and his Basketball Study. My agent noted that I needed to cite the source, after which I smacked myself in the forehead and told myself "Duh, Scott..."
So, I go looking for the primary source of the Basketball Study by Balslotto. It's one of the pieces most commonly quoted by Hypnotists and Hypnotherapists doing performance enhancement; when I got the information I used in my piece, I didn't use primary source, but rather an anecdotal treatment of the material on a sports enhancement site. So, I rolled up my sleeves, and dug in.
I could find a HUGE quantity of anecdotal references to Balslotto, but no primary sources - not even any secondary sources. Thank goodness that I wasn't the first person to look into this matter.
http://www.academyofcombat.co.nz/content/view/117/106/
Balslotto didn't do the study, nor was it done in Chicago. Alternate sources have it being done in Australia. About the time I started to despair, I found the correct information, thanks to Geoff at the Acadamy of Combat.
Turns out the study was done at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, buy Doctor L. V. Clark. He published his results in 1960 in Research Quarterly.
Of primary importance to me is that now, my own book, "Way of the Daydream Warrior" (working title), will have the correct citation, which will set it apart from the majority of works that accredit the study to Balslotto.
Also, though... in this day and age where people back up their arguments with sources cited from the internet, I'm going to start asking for primary sources if someone wants me to believe something. I dig Snopes and all, but Snopes cites their sources for a reason. Tracking those sources back to primary source is time consuming, but responsible.
Hence why I'm going to read the Healthcare bill myself. I know there are a lot of perfectly reasonable analysts out there trying to boil it down, but if I've got access to primary source (and I do, thanks Arcturus!) I'm going to go to primary source.
Got to get back to work, now... humbled and wiser, I hope
In my own piece, I reference the works of the well-known Doctor Balslotto of the University of Chicago and his Basketball Study. My agent noted that I needed to cite the source, after which I smacked myself in the forehead and told myself "Duh, Scott..."
So, I go looking for the primary source of the Basketball Study by Balslotto. It's one of the pieces most commonly quoted by Hypnotists and Hypnotherapists doing performance enhancement; when I got the information I used in my piece, I didn't use primary source, but rather an anecdotal treatment of the material on a sports enhancement site. So, I rolled up my sleeves, and dug in.
I could find a HUGE quantity of anecdotal references to Balslotto, but no primary sources - not even any secondary sources. Thank goodness that I wasn't the first person to look into this matter.
http://www.academyofcombat.co.nz/content/view/117/106/
Balslotto didn't do the study, nor was it done in Chicago. Alternate sources have it being done in Australia. About the time I started to despair, I found the correct information, thanks to Geoff at the Acadamy of Combat.
Turns out the study was done at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, buy Doctor L. V. Clark. He published his results in 1960 in Research Quarterly.
Of primary importance to me is that now, my own book, "Way of the Daydream Warrior" (working title), will have the correct citation, which will set it apart from the majority of works that accredit the study to Balslotto.
Also, though... in this day and age where people back up their arguments with sources cited from the internet, I'm going to start asking for primary sources if someone wants me to believe something. I dig Snopes and all, but Snopes cites their sources for a reason. Tracking those sources back to primary source is time consuming, but responsible.
Hence why I'm going to read the Healthcare bill myself. I know there are a lot of perfectly reasonable analysts out there trying to boil it down, but if I've got access to primary source (and I do, thanks Arcturus!) I'm going to go to primary source.
Got to get back to work, now... humbled and wiser, I hope