In your thesis you will likely need to define some key terms. Here are two ways to find reliable sources for definitions and overviews of terms.
Sage Reference eBook collection
This is an eBook collection of reference works for the social sciences and humanities. Although you would not want to cite an encyclopedia in your thesis, these reference works often provide an overview of the history of a term or concept and include a highly relevant bibliography.
For example, a search for "transformative learning" in the Sage Reference database retrieved this entry:
Cagney, A. (2014). Transformative learning. In D. Coghlan, & M. Brydon-Miller (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of action research. (pp. 789-794). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446294406.n348
Similarly, you could look at the References section of a Wikipedia article for reliable sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Transformative_learning
A final method is to track citations backwards until you've found the source that first introduced a term or concept. If that source is a book that you cannot access, finding an early article may work as well. Here is a quotation from an article:
Cercone, K. (2008). Characteristics of adult learners with implications for online learning design. AACE Journal, 16(2), pp. 137-159.
"Transformative learning, which is considered a constructivist theory of adult learning, was strongly influenced by the work of Jack Mezirow (1997)" (149).
Find Mezirow (1997) in the article's reference list:
Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 5-12.
Then look up this article using Google Scholar or Ontario Tech's Journals A-Z search.
Now you can quote and cite the article.
If you're searching for articles on your topic, you may want to try some databases specifically focused on the field of education:
Education Research Guide > Articles & Databases
Brainstorm keywords, as well as different ways of expressing those keywords. Construct an advanced search and use AND, OR, quotation marks (for phrases) and asterisks (alternate endings and spelling) appropriately:
Find Articles > Search: Keywords & Boolean Logic
For example:
Researchers often use tables and other graphic organizers to record article details and themes.
Some examples of tables used in metasynthesis research can be viewed in the tabs above.
Veletsianos, G. & Kleanthous, I. (2009). A review of adventure learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(6), 84-105. [Full-text - Open Access]
Note: The image below is an excerpt of the above article, which is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).
Erwin, E.J., Brotherson, M.J., & Summers, J.A. (2011). Understanding qualitative metasynthesis: Issues and opportunities in early childhood intervention research. Journal of Early Intervention, 33(3), 186-200. doi: 10.1177/105381511142549 [Full-text]
Table 2 (p. 196): Thematic Analysis Across Qualitative Articles: Examples of Emotional Supports
Savin-Baden, M. & Howell Major, C. (2010). New approaches to qualitative research. Routledge. [Full-text eBook]
Fig 12.2 (p. 114): An example of moving from first, through second, to third-order interpretation.
Nelson, A. (2002). A metasynthesis: Mothering other-than-normal children. Qualitative Health Research, 12(4), 515-530. doi:10.1177/104973202129120043 [Full-text]
Table 1 (p. 518): Demographics of study populations
Table 2 (p. 519): Summary of Metaphors, Themes, or Concepts Included in Metasynthesis
Table 4 (p. 520): Four Steps Revealed in Secondary Analysis and Categorized Themes
Table 5 (p. 521): Major Study Metaphors, Themes, or Concepts as Related to Secondary Translation Categories
You may wish to highlight and annotate article PDFs as you begin to identify possible themes. Many apps and programs, such as the free Adobe Reader, allow you to do this.
One option is to highlight and annotate within a citation manager, keeping your citations, PDFs and notes organized in one place.
In Zotero:
Adding PDFs and other files (Zotero.org)
Annotate & Highlight (OSU Guide)
In Mendeley:
Read, annotate and higlight (Mendeley Resources)
Image source: Veletsianos, G. & Kleanthous, I. (2009). A review of adventure learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(6), 84-105. | CC BY 4.0
Citation mangagers are helpful for storing and organizing your research sources, and they make it easy to create bibliographies and in-text citations. Zotero and Mendeley both have plug-ins you can download for Microsoft Word.
This video demonstrates adding in-text citations and a bibliography using Zotero's Word plug-in:
You can find links to videos and help guides for citation managers here:
Citation Management > Mendeley
Remember to check citations carefully for errors; sometimes article details are incorrect when saved from a database or entered manually.
You may wish to include images, diagrams, charts or other visuals in your presentation. If you're copying something created by someone else (whether an image found on the internet or a diagram from a journal article), make sure you follow these copyright rules
If your presentation is being shared in Blackboard:
Cite the image, diagram or chart. It is legal to copy these materials because your presentation is being shared in a password-protected learning management system for educational purposes -- not shared publicly on the web.
If your presentation is being shared publicly on the web:
Use an image that has been licensed for re-use. Unless the creator has given permission for the image, diagram or chart to be re-used, it is not legal for you to copy it and include it in your publicly posted presentation.
Ontario Tech Copyright Guide > Free Stuff
Citing Online Sources > How to cite something you found on a website in APA style
Sample citation, with Creative Commons license information:
Briscoe, E. (2014, 31 July). Lightroom course with George Cairns - studio snap [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/
elspethbriscoe/14806186161/