1. Lisa Calhoun Media Coordinator October 2015

2. Steps to Picking a Topic 1.Choose a Topic that interests you 2.Write down as many descriptors or key words as you can about the topic 3.Use these key words to search various books and online resources

3. Do Not Choose a Topic That Is:  Too Broad – Avoid overwhelming topics such as “abortion”, “animal rights”, “censorship”, etc.  Too Narrow - Not enough information to back up your argument.

4. Examples of Good Topics Topic: Cell phones Narrowed topic: Cell phones and cancer Specific topic: Does the frequent use of cell phones cause cancer? Topic: Animal testing Narrowed topic: Animal testing and medicine Specific topic: Should animals be used in drug testing?

6. Information Starts Here Destiny (ACHS online catalog): www.ashe.k12.nc.us NC Wise Owl: www.ncwiseowl.orgwww.ncwiseowl.org Ashe County Public Library: www.arlibrary.org

7. Reliable Internet Sources NC Live : www.nclive.orgwww.nclive.org Provides free access to e-books, audiobooks, videos, online magazines, newspapers, journals, and more. Teen Health & Wellness: http://www.teenhealthandwellness.com/ Topics covered include diseases, drugs, alcohol, nutrition, mental health, suicide, bullying, and more.

8. Saving Your Work Always save your work every 3-4 minutes! Save your document more than 1 place -Use School Server -Flash Drive or CD -E-mail the document as an attachment to yourself When working at home Make sure that the word processing program you are using at home is compatible with the one at school.

10. What to Cite Direct Quotations Ideas that are not your own. Information that is found in only 1 source. Any quotes within a given text. Any numbers or statistics within a text. When in doubt, cite the information. Also remember that common knowledge does not have to be cited.

11. Examples of MLA Citations  University of Maryland University College – http://www.umuc.edu/library/guides/mla.shtml#intext  The Myrin Virtual Library - http://myrin.ursinus.edu/help/resrch_guides/cit_style mla.htm#art_work  Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University – http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

12. Citation Assistance MLA Format http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/ BibMe http://www.bibme.org/ EasyBib http://www.easybib.com Citation Maker http://secondary.oslis.org/cite-sources/mla-secondary-citation

13. Plagiarism plagiarism - n 1: a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work 2: the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own SourceSource: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University ***Remember: Copying and pasting without giving credit to the author is a form of plagiarism!!!

14. Cyber-plagiarism “ Cyber-plagiarism is the term used to describe the process by which students either copy ideas found on the Web without giving proper attribution, or the process by which students download research papers from the Web, in whole or in part, and submit the paper as original work." Cyber-plagiarism attribution University of Alberta, 2004

15. Key Points of Plagiarism ***Plagiarism power-point from Joyce Valenza http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpag es/JWu1/files/plagiarismCopy.ppt **Plagiarism Tutorial taken from Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia. http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/plagiari sm/

16. NC Statute 14-118.2 – “Acts of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, are illegal in the state of North Carolina.” http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/St atutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_14/GS_14- 118.2.html Plagiarism from Appalachian State University http://www.slideshare.net/vlequire/avoiding- plagiarismasu

17. If you need assistance, please do not hesitate to ask anyone in the Media Center. It is our job to help!

18. Resources You Don’t Want to Miss 1. Duke University’s Guide to Library Research http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/home.htm http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/home.htm - a great tool to review all the steps of the research process 2. How Not to Plagiarize (www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html)www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html - University of Toronto clear explanation of why & how we cite resources. 3. University of Alberta Libraries http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/handouts/index.cfm - gives a good overview of plagiarism and how to avoid it, also has good list of how to evaluate web sites. 4. Berger, Pam. 21 st Century Strategies for Strengthening Your School Library Program. Bellevue, WA : Bureau of Education & Research, 2005. - a resource guide that was used to create this presentation.