When researching your policy/issue of interest, you should look at diverse sources of information to get a good "feel" for the topic and the conversation around the topic. This will help ensure that you have a well-rounded understanding of the issue and let you be precise in asking your representative for a specific action.
Various types of resources have their own strengths and weaknesses:
Books
- great for broad, in-depth analysis of a particular subject
- offer more complete information and greater historical perspective
- information is not as current as other resources
Journal articles
- good for finding current research on a topic
- "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed" articles are written by scholars and professionals in the field
- usually a very narrow scope
Newspapers
- best for very local and very recent information
- good for primary source material
- watch for bias, objectivity
Websites
- good for finding information from governments, organizations, and global entities
- convenient to access
- watch for accuracy, bias, privacy/security issues
Grey literature (e.g. government/business/academic reports, theses, conference proceedings)
- may contain unique information
- does not go through a review process
Policy briefs (a type of grey literature)
- concise & targeted to an issue
- watch for bias (e.g. think tanks can be partisan or non-partisan)
Data & statistics
- lend strength to an argument
- can be misinterpreted or manipulated
