Evaluating Sources

Integrating Information From Sources

Citing Information

What is Plagiarism?

Paraphrasing

Direct Quotation

Summarizing

And Then There's Copyright

Copyright vs. Plagiarism

Glossary
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Evaluating Sources

When researching a topic, your job is to collect information from ARTICLES, BOOKS, and/or the WEB. At some point, however, you have to start analyzing what each resource says.

You may have already done some evaluating when selecting items, like looking at the date and the scope of the subject matter being covered. Now, you want to go through each resource with a fine tooth-comb to glean the good information from them. When EVALUATING a source, look at:

the importance of the information as it relates to your topic
whether the information is intended for a similar audience as your research
how current the information is and whether that matters given your topic
how reliable and authoritative the author is