Research!

I’ve been falling behind in this class and it’s kind of catching up with me, but I’m still determined to learn from this class and end this semester strongly. Last week I met up with my professor to discuss my research proposal, something I was very confused about. We discussed what I had already written, which got pretty decent feedback, and what I needed to add on to make it a complete research proposal. I left my professors office feeling very confident about completing my research proposal and the future of my research paper. I was very excited about the idea my professor gave me about comparing autopsy files to the protocol found in the book “Guidelines for Reports by Autopsy Pathologists” by Vernard Irvine Adams Chief Medical Examiner, Hillsborough County, Florida. I just got the idea of possibly meeting up with the author for further questions since they might live a short drive away! That’s really exciting! Anyhow, so I began reading the book and the preface already is extremely informative; a lot of my questions have been answered in just a few paragraphs. I learned that “the case pathologist him- or herself (at a later date), attorneys, the family of the decedent, and other physicians read autopsy reports” and “Most reports produced by pathologists can be divided into objective and subjective elements, or, in other words, findings and opinions”(Adams V). I wonder if I can use certain parts of the book as different text partners because I would love to use the preface of this book, I’m just not sure how I would cite that. What about some of the autopsy files, can I use those as  text partners? How would I cite those? I’m truly beginning to enjoy this research process, just need to catch up!