To Describe or Frame the Situation

Choosing what kinds of sources you’ll need to meet this need is pretty simple—you should almost always use what’s going to be clear and compelling to your audience. Nonetheless, sources intended to educate and inform may play an outsized role here.

But even then, your sources don’t have to educate and inform formally, which opens the door to using sources such as fiction or the other arts and formats that you might not use with some other information needs.

Resources to Describe/Frame the Situation

  • Quantitative or Qualitative: Whatever you think will make the description most clear and compelling and make your question important to your audience
  • Fact or Opinion: Often to educate and inform, but sources don’t have to do that formally here so they can also be used to entertain or sell
  • Scholarly, Professional, or Popular: Whatever you think will make the description most clear and compelling and make your question important to your audience
  • Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary: Whatever you think will make the description most clear and compelling and make your question important to your audience
  • Publication Format: Whatever you think will make the description most clear and compelling and make your question important to your audience