RESEARCH: How to Make the Process Easier

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RESEARCH How to Make the Process Easier

• Use the Alabama Virtual Library databases
• Use Internet Web Sites
• Use Print Sources
• Cite Sources
• Avoid Plagiarism

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Web Address
www.avl.lib.al.us At Alabama libraries, no User
ID or Password is needed.
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Britannica Online School Edition for grades K-12

• Three complete encyclopedias
• 118,000 articles
• 22,000 images
• 2,000 video clips
• 24,000 biographies
• Detailed maps of 196 countries
• Dictionary and Thesaurus

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Kids Search

• This database is easy to use. It includes images
  and videos as well as written information.
• You can e-mail the articles and pictures to
  yourself at home.
• The information is easy to read and understand.

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Literature Resource Center

• Integrates searching for literary information
  including critical analyses, biographies, and
  bibliographies for more than 120,000 authors from
  every age and literary discipline. The Center
  covers 90,000 novelists, poets, essayists,
  journalists, and other writers with additional
  coverage for 2,500 of the most-studied authors.

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Contemporary Authors

• Complete biographical and bibliographical
• information and references on more than
• 120,000 U.S. and international authors.
• Audience middle school through college,
• general public
• Meg Cabot

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PRINT SOURCES

• Encyclopedias and other Reference Bookslocated
  in the reference section of our library
• BooksUse InfoCentre Search to find books on your
  topic.
• MagazinesUse Readers Guide to find recent
  magazine articles on your topic.

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InfoCentre Search

• Our librarys computerized card catalog can be
  found on every computer in the library.
• You can search by subject, keyword, title, or
  author.

•   

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Internet Web Sites

• Not all websites are good for research purposes.
• Wikipedia is not a reliable source.
• www.wikipedia.com
• Everyone can contribute to Wikipedia, regardless
  of whether they choose to register. However, you
  must have a registered username in order to
  create new articles.

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Search Engines Websites

• Using a search engine such as Google or Mamma
  does not always give you a reliable list of
  websites.
• Evaluate the website carefully to determine if it
  is a reliable source.

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The Best Websites

• Websites that are maintained by
• government or educational
• organizations are your best bet for
• research purposes.

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What about Citing Sources?

• All information that you get from any source,
  including databases, web sites, books, and
  magazines must be cited.
• Even if you write the information in your own
  words, you must cite the source.
• To cite a source means to tell the reader where
  you found the information.

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What Is Plagiarism?

• How Can Avoid Students Avoid Plagiarism?
• To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit
  whenever you use another persons idea, opinion,
  or theory
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawingsany
  pieces of informationthat are not common
  knowledge
• quotations of another persons actual spoken or
  written words or
• paraphrase of another persons spoken or written
  words.

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An Example of Plagiarism

• Heres the ORIGINAL text, from Contemporary
  Authors Online
• J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series,
  is one of the most popular writers of all time.
  As of mid-2007, worldwide sales of her books
  surpassed 325 million copies. The Harry Potter
  titles are available in more than 200 countries
  and have been translated into sixty-four
  languages.
• This rewrite IS Plagiarism
• J. K. Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter books,
  is a very popular writer today. In June 2007, the
  sale of her books around the world was more than
  325 million copies. The Harry Potter books can be
  found in over 200 countries and have been
  translated from English into more than sixty
  different languages.

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Is this plagiarism?

• ORIGINAL
• Harry is an orphaned boy living with his aunt
  Petunia, uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley Dursley
  at number four Privet Drive in England. Harry is
  unloved, bullied, and underfed, and he believes
  there is nothing special about himself, other
  than the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

• PARAPHRASED
• Harry is an orphan who lives with his uncle,
  aunt, and cousin in England on Privet Drive. He
  does not feel special and is underfed, bullied,
  and not loved. He has a scar on his forehead
  shaped like a lightning bolt.

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Why Is It Plagiarism?

• The preceding passage is considered plagiarism
  for two reasons
• the writer has only changed around a few words
  and phrases, or changed the order of the
  originals sentences.
• the writer has failed to cite a source for any of
  the ideas or facts.
• If you do either or both of these things, you are
  plagiarizing.

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Strategies for Avoiding Plagiarism

• 1. Put in quotations everything that comes
  directly from the text especially when taking
  notes.
• 2. Paraphrase, but be sure you are not just
  rearranging or replacing a few words.
• Instead, read over what you want to paraphrase
  carefully cover up the text with your hand, or
  close the text so you cant see any of it (and so
  arent tempted to use the text as a guide).
  Write out the idea in your own words without
  peeking.
• 3. Check your paraphrase against the original
  text to be sure you have not accidentally used
  the same phrases or words, and that the
  information is accurate.

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Terms You Need to Know

• Common knowledge facts that can be found in
  numerous places and are likely to be known by a
  lot of people.
• Example John F. Kennedy was elected President of
  the United States in 1960.
• This is generally known information. You do not
  need to document this fact.

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Quotation

• Quotation using someones words. When you quote,
  place the passage you are using in quotation
  marks, and document the source according to a
  standard documentation style.
• The following example uses the Modern Language
  Associations style
• Alcatraz is the sandstone tip of a former
  mountain that only 200 years ago was a bare hunk
  of rounded rock in the bay. In the late 1700s,
  Spanish explorers named it La Isla de los
  Alcatraces. The name may have referred to Spanish
  cormorants, alcatraceo, or pelicans, alcaraz
  (National Wildlife).

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Paraphrase

• Paraphrase using someones ideas, but putting
  them in your own words. This is probably the
  skill you will use most when incorporating
  sources into your writing. Although you use your
  own words to paraphrase, you must still
  acknowledge the source of the information.

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Article in a Magazine

• Cite by listing the article's author, putting the
  title of the article in quotations marks, and
  underlining or italicizing the periodical title.
  Follow with the date and remember to abbreviate
  the month. Basic format

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Article in a Magazine

• Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of
  Periodical Day Month Year pages.
• Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call."
  Time 20 Nov. 2000 70-71.
• Buchman, Dana. "A Special Education." Good
  Housekeeping Mar. 2006 143-8.

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Article in a Newspaper

• Cite a newspaper article as you would a magazine
  article, but note the different pagination in a
  newspaper. If there is more than one edition
  available for that date (as in an early and late
  edition of a newspaper), identify the edition
  following the date (e.g., 17 May 2007, late ed.).

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Newspaper

• Krugman, Andrew. "Fear of Eating." New York Times
  21 May 2007 late ed. A1.
• If the newspaper is local, include the city name
  in brackets after the title of the newspaper.

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Books

• First or single author's name is written last
  name, first name. The basic form for a book
  citation is
• Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of
  Publication Publisher, Year of Publication.

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BOOKS

• Book with One Author
• Gleick, James. Chaos Making a New Science. New
  York Penguin Books, 1987.
• Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver
  MacMurray, 1999.

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Book with More Than One Author

• First author name is written last name first
  subsequent author names are written first name,
  last name.
• Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and
  Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston Allyn,
  2000.

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RECAP

• AVL is made up of databases. You cite the
  information from databases differently from the
  way you cite information from print sources.
• Information from websites must be cited using the
  URL.
• Always write the title, author, publisher and
  date of publication for a book source.
• Citations from a magazine source must include the
  date of the magazine and the page numbers.
• All information that you glean from a place other
  than your own mind needs to be cited.
• Avoid plagiarismits a deadly mistake!

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Research is a Learning Experience

• One of your goals is to learn the process of
  writing a research paper.
• One of the best places to look for information is
  the OWL Writing Lab
• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
  

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Review

• What is AVL?
• What are some good databases to search?
• What is the name of the card catalog where I
  search for books?
• Does this library have magazines?
• Why is Wikipedia not a reliable source?
• What is plagiarism?

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Good Luck and Happy Searching!