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

2. Credibility Definition: Credibility is important!
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.

3. How do I know if my sources are credible?
Most books in the 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

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

5. 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.

6. Credible Internet Sources
Ways to tell a credible internet source:
Cite 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 creators found their information.
The sources of their information are also credible.

7. 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.

8. Credible Internet Sources
These guidelines are not 100 percent.
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.

9. Having trouble finding sites?
Not finding sources? Change the wording of the search:
Instead of teens try adolescents.
Instead of America or US try United States.
Instead of impact try influence.
There may be better sources on page 2 or 3!
Use multiple search tabs, i.e. images, web, videos, scholar, books, etc…

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

11. 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:
A requirement to redo the entire assignment.
A zero for the assignment.
In college, you may fail an entire course for plagiarism.
In college, plagiarism may result in expulsion, with no tuition refund.

12. 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.
In high school, many teachers believe that you are guilty until proven innocent of plagiarism.
Is easy to avoid
MLA style sheets
Citation makers

13. How to Cite Sources
Citation makers will write your works cited page for you if you have the right information on your sources, but they are not always up- to-date or accurate.
Books, articles, and websites are all cited differently.
The more information you have, the better.
When you find a source you think you can use, you need to make sure you have several items:

14. 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.

15. Making Citations It is a good practice to write your own citations.
While citation makers are handy, they are not always 100 percent accurate or up-to-date.
It’s easier and takes less time than you think.
Go to Purdue OWL –
Choose MLA Guide
Choose what you need to cite
Write your citation (paying attention to punctuation)

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