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Citation

How to evaluate source

  • Why should I evaluate these sources? As you perform research for your assignments, you will encounter all of these types of resources. However, not everything you find on your topic will be suitable for your research, or meet the criteria given by your instructors for use in writing college-level papers.
  • How do you make sense of what is out there and evaluate its authority and appropriateness for your research?
  • Using the wrong source, or a source that's not appropriate for your level of research, can cause a multitude of problems. If you use an encyclopedia as a sole source for a college-level paper, you will likely do poorly, and if you do not use a scholarly source when one is specifically required, you will not fulfill the assignment criteria - again, another reason to lose points. But bad grades are not the only adverse consequence of not evaluating the sources you plan to use. Outdated information, sources with biases and sources without backup from research or other primary or secondary information and data can result in your paper being one-sided, your arguments being indefensible, or the facts you quote plain WRONG.
  • Check your sources for these potential problem areas, and ask for help if the sources you've found turn out to have issues:
  • Determine the intended audience.
    • Is it you? Consider the tone, style, level of information, and assumptions the author makes about the reader. Are they appropriate for your needs? College-level papers should be drawing on scholarly and expert sources.
  • Browse through the table of contents and the index.
    • This will give you an overview of the source. Is your topic covered in enough depth to be helpful? Broad generalizations won't help you get to the heart of your topic.
  • Try to determine if the content of the source is fact, opinion, or propaganda.
    • If you think the source is offering facts, are the sources for those facts clearly indicated?
  • Is there enough evidence offered?
    • Is the coverage comprehensive? (As you learn more and more about your topic, you will notice that this gets easier as you become more of an expert.)
  • Watch the language!
    • Is it objective or emotional?
  • What are the author's sources?
    • Is there a good mix of primary and secondary sources in the bibliography?
  • If the source is opinion, does the author offer sound reasons for adopting that stance? (Is the author reputable? Does she have a scholarly background? Is he a known expert in the field? What are his educational and professional qualifications?)
  • How timely is the source?
    • Is the source twenty years out of date? Some information becomes dated when new research is available, but other older sources of information can be quite sound fifty or a hundred years later.
  • Do some cross-checking.
    • Can you find some of the same information given elsewhere?
  • Are there vague or sweeping generalizations that aren't backed up with evidence?
  • Is more than one viewpoint presented? Or are arguments one-sided without acknowledging other viewpoints?
  • Is the information "crowd-sourced?"
    • Wikipedia can be a good place to start your research by reading background information, and checking the citations to verify the information.
  • Pay attention to the source:
    • A non-profit organization, a for-profit company, an educational institution, the Federal Government, or an individual.

Why citing sources is important

  • Acknowledge ideas that are not your own
  • Helps those reading your work to locate your sources, in order to learn more about the ideas that you are presenting
  • Citing your sources consistently and accurately helps you avoid committing plagiarism in your writing

A good citation makes it easy for the reader to figure out who, what, when, and where of the source.

What is plagiarism

"Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's words, ideas, or work - whether accidentally or deliberately - as your own work. Source material obtained from internet sources requires the same attentiveness to documentation as from all other sources. Student must properly document the sources of information and ideas received. When in doubt, a good rule is to document any assistance in question."

"Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's words, ideas, or work - whether accidentally or deliberately - as your own work. Source material obtained from internet sources requires the same attentiveness to documentation as from all other sources. Student must properly document the sources of information and ideas received. When in doubt, a good rule is to document any assistance in question."

  • Always:
    • Document in detail as you work; this will ensure complete citations and will preclude forgetting the specific passage, page, or URL of original idea.
    • Document all numbers, facts, direct quotes
    • follow specific guidelines as laid out by your instructor with regard to format
    • when in doubt: DOCUMENT
When can one use information without citations?

If the information is Common Knowledge a citation is not required. Some examples are:

  • Well known quotes, axioms, proverbs and sayings
  • Widely known information (i.e. Portia Simpson Miller was the 1st Prime Minister of Jamaica; water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit)
Tips for preventing Plagiarism
  • Take careful note of your sources during your research process. Include author(s), title, place of publication, publisher, internet source if applicable, page numbers. More is better; you can always discard unneeded information later.
  • Be sure to indicate which phrases and ideas are yours and which are the work of others.
  • Decide on a strategy for documenting your resources and follow this procedure throughout your research.

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