Tompkins Article

During research it is often hard to find articles that are completely reliable. Even scholarly articles aren’t completely facts – they too hold bias opinions. In Tompkins article about the Indians and the Puritans in the 17th century, she ran into the problem of whether or not she could believe the readings of the other authors. Francis Jennings, Perry Miller, Calvin Martin, Norman Heard and James Axtell are a few of the authors whose views she chose to research. It seemed that each author added his or her personal biases into their books, which sometimes made it hard for Tompkins to see the “whole truth” about the topic. During Tompkins research, she felt that she did not have correct information about the Indians and the relationship that they had with the Puritans. To solve this issue, she chose to take bits and pieces of the research that she had accomplished and at the same time, add her own opinions into the article.
I can very easily see how this could be a problem that anybody doing research would encounter. It seems that every book or article may include some opinions and biases, and the best thing to do is collect as many sources as possible, and like Tompkins ….. pick and chose the information that you feel is the “most accurate & usable.”