From taking notes to creating a bibliography Conducting Research From taking notes to creating a bibliography

Evaluating Sources Not everything in a book or on the Internet will be a suitable & reliable source of information Ask yourself 3 important questions about every source of information you find: Who is providing the information? Is it up-to-date? Is it accurate? Suitable = fits your topic, useful for your project Reliable = trustworthy info, correct info Info provider: Can you trust the author? Where does their knowledge come from? Check their credentials by looking for an ‘About’ or ‘Contact’ page Current: When was the information published? Is it recent? For history projects, up-to-the-minute info is less important, but keep this in mind for science projects, etc. Accurate: Have you found similar info in other sources? Where did the author find their information? Do they have footnotes or a bibliography that tells you?

Evaluating Web Sources When using the Internet stay away from sites with a lot of these red flags: Author’s name is a user name, not a real name No information about the author on the site Unprofessional domain name Poor graphics, broken links and other signs of poor maintenance Not updated recently Offensive content More advertising than information Contains information that doesn’t match up with the rest of your research

Can you use Wikipedia? You can’t use Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, etc. because these are open source sites where all users can contribute Contributors don’t need to prove they are qualified to write the articles Accuracy varies widely Get around this issue: Scroll to the bottom of the article and use the author(s) original sources of information for your project

How to do a Google Search If all you do is type a bunch of words into a search engine, you will end up with a lot of junk: In this case, the term renaissance man garnered over 54 million hits most of them would be totally useless for my Renaissance project Note that the one refers to a movie from 1994—who cares?

How to do a Google Search Generate better search results by using these tips: Choose your search terms carefully Leave out non-essential words like ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘in’, etc. Use quotation marks around words that should appear together (e.g. “nicolo machiavelli”) Use the plus sign for multiple key words if you are only interested in results that have ALL of those words (e.g. renaissance+florence+banking) Use a minus sign in front of words that you DO NOT want to appear in your search results (e.g. “renaissance man” –movie) In this case, the term renaissance man garnered over 54 million hits most of them would be totally useless for my Renaissance project Note that the one refers to a movie from 1994—who cares?

How to do a Google Search This improved search has returned fewer, but more useful results. Now you just have to sort through them. Top results will have the largest number of references to your search terms Check out title, URL, blurb beneath the title Bold words show you where your search terms appear May need to refine your search more or broaden it by removing terms depending on how much comes up

For More Detailed Information Visit the Workshop section of the class website if you want more detailed information on: How to find useful, reliable information for your research project READ Evaluating Sources AND How to do a Better Google Search We’re covering the basics here, but more detailed information is available on these topics and much more should you wish to improve your writing and research skills further The Preparing a List of Works Cited article is handy to have open on your computer during research as it lists just about every possible source of information you could be using and gives examples of how to set them up.

Taking Research Notes Create a new page of notes for each source of information Place bibliographic reference at top of page Record information in your own words Do not cut and paste from websites Read a short section then summarize any useful information into 1 or 2 notes Try not to constantly look back at what you were reading Keeping separate notes from each source is a good idea Keeps info organized Take time to do a bibliographic reference during research for easy assembly of bibliographyUse your own words for note taking to help you avoid plagiarism from step 1 Also helps you process and remember the info, making writing your final project easier.

Taking Notes from a Print Source TAKE NOTE OF: Bibliographic reference at top (different info required for different types of sources); this is a basic book (one author) reference Page numbers in the margin; new pages separated by a skipped line Quotation marks around phrases/sentences directly copied for possible quotation in the paper

Taking Notes from a Web Source TAKE NOTE OF: Bibliographic reference at top (different info required for different types of sources); this is a basic web reference; important difference: date of access required as websites frequently updated and can change whereas print materials stay the same Paragraph numbers in the margin (most web sources do not have page numbers); new paragraphs separated by a skipped line Not necessarily taking notes from every single paragraph; only material that may be useful for assignment Quotation marks around phrases/sentences directly copied for possible quotation in the paper

For More Detailed Information Visit the Workshop section of the class website if you want more detailed information on: How to record information in your notes READ Taking Research Notes How to record a correct bibliographic reference for a variety of source materials READ Preparing a List of Works Cited We’re covering the basics here, but more detailed information is available on these topics and much more should you wish to improve your writing and research skills further The Preparing a List of Works Cited article is handy to have open on your computer during research as it lists just about every possible source of information you could be using and gives examples of how to set them up.

The Basics of a Bibliography Start it on a new page Use Times New Roman 12 point font Give it the title: Bibliography Double space EVERYTHING using hanging indentations to show that information on multiple lines is connected List everything in alphabetical order by author’s last name If the source doesn’t give an author, place it in alphabetical order by title (But ignore starting words like The and A)

Your list of works cited for the sample sources used in this presentation would look like: Bibliography Kreis, Steven. “Renaissance Humanism.” The History Guide.N.p., 13 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. Newman, Garfield, ed. “The Renaissance.” Echoes from the Past. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 2001. 596-629. Print.

For More Detailed Information Visit the Workshop section of the class website if you want more detailed information on: How to record a correct bibliographic reference for a variety of source materials READ Preparing a List of Works Cited We’re covering the basics here, but more detailed information is available on these topics and much more should you wish to improve your writing and research skills further GO TO WEBSITE AND SHOW STUDENTS HOW TO LOOK UP THE TYPE OF SOURCE THEY ARE USING The Preparing a List of Works Cited article is handy to have open on your computer during research as it lists just about every possible source of information you could be using and gives examples of how to set them up. IF TIME ALLOWS: Show students how to set up page numbers in Word