Credible Sources

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Credible Sources

• Dont Listen to the Village Idiot

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Credibility

• Definition
• 1.capable of being believed believable a
  credible statement.
• 2.worthy of belief or confidence trustworthy a
  credible witness.
• Credibility is important!
• If your research is flawed, so is your argument.
• If you use credible sources, you can believe
  them, and your readers can believe you.

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How do I know if my sources are credible?

• Most books you find in library nonfiction are
  credible.
• Most large newspapers are credible.
• New York Times
• Charlotte Observer
• Washington Post
• Scholarly journals are usually credible.
• JAMA (Journal of the American Medical
  Association)
• Most government publications are credible.
• Reputable organizations are usually credible.
• American Cancer Society
• World Health Organization
• American Red Cross
• Most information from colleges is credible.
• .edu websites

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How do I know if my sources are credible?

• You can automatically rule out
• Wikipedia
• Facebook
• Blogs
• Personal sites

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Using the Internet for Research

• The internet offers the BEST information on MANY
  topics.
• The internet offers the WORST information on MOST
  topics.
• You can use internet resources for research
  papers, but you have to be careful.

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Credible Internet Sources

• Ways to tell a credible internet source
• Looks professional
• The website doesnt look like it was made by a
  4-year-old with a crayon
• All or most links are working
• Information offered is easy to verify
• The website offers links to where they found
  their information
• The sources of their information is also credible

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Credible Internet Sources

• It is easy to contact the owners of the website
  for more information or to ask questions
• The site is up to date
• Information from 1991 is not listed as recent
• There are no errors
• The site uses proper spelling and grammar
• The website is appropriate
• There is no inappropriate language, graphics, or
  photos

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Credible Internet Sources

• These guidelines are not 100
• When in doubt, ask for help from a teacher or
  librarian
• If youre still not sure, DONT use it
• Be careful with .com sites
• All .com sites are trying to sell something,
  which means they are all biased in some way
• Sites with lots of advertisements are usually
  less credible

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Citing Sources With MLA

• Its not as hard as it used to be.

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Citing Works in Research Papers

• If you use ANY information from a source in your
  paper, you must CITE it.
• Works Cited Page
• In-Text Citations
• If you didnt say it yourself and you dont cite
  it, it is plagiarism.
• Plagiarism can result in
• A zero for the assignment
• A requirement to redo the entire assignment
• In college, plagiarism may fail you for an entire
  course
• In college, plagiarism may result in expulsion,
  with no tuition refund

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Plagiarism

• Is much easier to spot than it used to be
• Doesnt take very long for a teacher to check
• A teacher can type 10 words of your paper into a
  search engine, and within seconds, compare it to
  tens of thousands of other papers that have
  already been written
• In high school, many teachers believe that you
  are guilty until proven innocent of plagiarism
• Is easy to avoid
• Citation makers
• MLA style sheets

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How to Cite Sources

• Citation makers will write your works cited page
  for you if you have the right information on your
  sources
• Books, articles, and websites are all cited
  differently
• The more information you have, the better
• When you find a source that you think you can
  use, you need to make sure you have several
  things

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Making Citations

• Your checklist
• Author
• Title
• Publication company
• Publication location
• Publication date
• Page numbers
• Date accessed online
• Editor
• ENTIRE web address
• You might not always be able to find all of this
  information, but get as much as you can.

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Citation Maker

• Go to Son of Citation Machine
  http//citationmachine.net/
• Click on MLA at the top left of the page.
• Click on the type of source you want to cite.
• Fill in the boxes for your source.
• Click Submit.
• Voila!  Your citation is written.

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Questions and Answers

• If you dont ask, youll never know.