There are times you'll want to use books and other times articles. Knowing what resources works best for your project is important. Books tend to work better in the following instances:
- You are looking for information on a narrow topic. You aren't needing a broad overview of a topic, but you are working on something specific. For example, you've narrowed your paper to the rustics in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Books are good for the whole play; articles are good for specific characters in the play.
- You need original research on an area. For the sciences, books tend to show you the trends, bu the actual data, the research itself, is usually found in articles. If you see lots of data and numbers in an article, there's a good chance it's research.
- Articles, because they take less time to publish, tend to have newer information. If time is important for your topic, then you may need to consider articles.
