Don’t Listen to the Village Idiot Credible Sources Don’t Listen to the Village Idiot

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.

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

How do I know if my sources are credible? You can automatically rule out: Wikipedia Myspace Sparknotes Blogs Friendster Personal sites

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.

Credible Internet Sources Ways to tell a credible internet source: Looks professional The website doesn’t 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

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

Credible Internet Sources These guidelines are not 100% When in doubt, ask for help from a teacher or librarian If you’re still not sure, DON’T 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

Citing Sources With MLA It’s not as hard as it used to be.

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 didn’t say it yourself and you don’t cite it, it is plagiarism. Plagiarism can result in: In college, plagiarism may fail you for an entire course In college, plagiarism may result in expulsion, with no tuition refund

Plagiarism Is much easier to spot than it used to be Doesn’t 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 Is easy to avoid Citation makers MLA style sheets

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

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.

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.

If you don’t ask, you’ll never know. Questions and Answers If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.