Using Outside Sources

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Because hard facts (such as the date a war started) and statistics can be independently verified by your readers through their own research or experimentation, this type of evidence is often the most credible form of support you can offer for your ideas.

As a student, you usually won't have the time to conduct first hand surveys or experiments of your own with which to generate such hard evidence. Instead, you may call on the primary research from outside sources and use the same statistics they cite to back up your ideas (giving full credit to the source of the statistics, of course).