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

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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)

14. 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 Web. 10 Jan Newman, Garfield, ed. “The Renaissance.” Echoes from the Past. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, Print.

15. 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