Weaver

Obtain

Evaluate

Communicate

OWL at Purdue
 Citation Machine
In text Citations

Obtaining Information:

Online Resources

Tips for Googling

Obtaining Information

Obtaining Information:

​Utah’s Online Library (Click Here)
Remember: Look online  if you need  information

Gale Reference Collection 7-12 (Canvas Resource Tab: Science in Context)
—>Science In Context (Science Database)
—>High School Edition (Newspaper/ Periodical Database).

Ebsco High School
–> Select All Databases
–>Click the box at the top that says “select all”
Obtaining Information: Tips for Googling

• If you aren’t getting the search results you want change your keywords. Make them more specific or less specific, use synonyms, or rephrase.

• Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.   

         e.g. “Wolves of Yellowstone” will only return search results with that exact phrase

• use search term  site:domain to pull up websites with only a specific domain

          e.g. wolf site:edu will only pull up .edu sites with “wolf” in them. You can do this for all domains, .edu .org, .gov. 

• Adding ~ before a word will search for its synonyms.

         e.g. ~energy will search for energy, electricity, fuel, and power. 

• Add a dash (–) before a word or site to exclude all results that include that word. This is especially useful for words with multiple meanings, like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal.  e.g. jaguar speed -car

Evaluating Information: CRAP Test 
How to determine if a website is CRAP:

Currency 

• When was the page written or updated?
• If no date is given on the page, visit the home page to look for the date
• Is the information current enough for your topic?
• Why might the date matter for your topic?

Reliability 

• Are there references given for the information on the site?
• Look for a bibliography or any list of materials used in the creation of the page.
•  Is the content primarily opinion? 
• Is the content biased or balanced? Why might bias matter for your topic?

Authority

• Who wrote the page?
• If there is no specific author, what is the name of the organization responsible for the site? You may need to visit the home page to find the answer.
• Is there evidence that the author or organization is an expert on this subject?

Purpose/ Point of View

• Why was the page put on the web?
• Are there ads on the site? How do they relate to the topic covered?

         Example: an ad selling ammunition next to an article about firearm legislation.

• Is the content primarily opinion?

• What is the domain extension? How might this influence the purpose?

Evaluating Information: Spotting Bad Science 

Communicating Information: What is a Citation?
Citing a source means that you show, within the body of your text, that you took words, ideas, figures, images, etc. from another place.
 
Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases. 
 
Citations consist of standard elements, and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:

• author name(s)
• titles of books, articles, and journals
• date of publication
• page numbers
• volume and issue numbers (for articles)

Communicating Information: Why is a Citation Important?
​
It’s important to cite sources you used in your research for several reasons:

• To show your reader you’ve done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information
• To be a responsible scholar by giving credit to other researchers and acknowledging their ideas
• To avoid plagiarism by quoting words and ideas used by other authors
• To allow your reader to track down the sources you used by citing them accurately in your paper by way of footnotes, a bibliography or reference list
• https://libguides.mit.edu/citing#plagiarism

Communicating Information: Things that Need a Citation

• Facts, figures, ideas, or other information that is not common knowledge
• Ideas, words, theories, or exact language that another person used in other publications
• Publications that must be cited include:  books, book chapters, articles, web pages, theses, etc.
• Another person’s exact words should be quoted and cited to show proper credit 

 
Communicating Information: Steps to Citing Correctly (Helpful Links)

1. Collect your information including any pre-made citations from databases on a separate document.
2. Write your paper and include In Text Citations after every time use used a source as a reference in the actual report.
3. Create your works cited page at the end of your report by using OWL or the Citation Machine to make your citations.
4. Format your paper using MLA format for a work cited page. (See Example Here)

 In Text Citations & Work Cited Page: Examples