ls526 unit 3 march 15 th part 2, seminar 3 choosing reliable sources citing sources in apa style...

LS526 Unit 3 March 15th

Part 2, Seminar 3

Choosing Reliable SourcesCiting Sources in APA StyleIntegrating Source Material

Information for this presentation comes fromUC-Berkeley Library

Cornell University LibraryPurdue OWL

Lakeland CC Library


UC-Berkeley, “Evaluating Web Pages”

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.htm

Cornell U. Library, “Critically Analyzing Information Sources”

http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill26.htm

Purdue Owl, “Using Research and Evidence”http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/02/

Lakeland Library, Research Guideshttp://library.lakelandcc.edu/sourceevaluation.html


Assessing the credibility of sources:

Who is the author?

Credible sources are written by authors respected in their fields of study. Responsible, credible authors will cite their sources so that you can check the accuracy of and support for what they've written. (This is also a good way to find more sources for your own research.)



How recent is the source?

The choice to seek recent sources depends on your topic. While sources on the American Civil War may be decades old and still contain accurate information, sources on information technologies, or other areas that are experiencing rapid changes, need to be much more current.


Assessing the credibility of sources:What is the author's purpose?

When deciding which sources to use, take the purpose or point of view of the author into consideration.

Is the author presenting a neutral, objective view of a topic? Or is the author advocating one specific view of a topic?

A source written from a particular point of view may be credible; however, you need to be careful that your sources don't limit your coverage of a topic to one side of a debate.



What type of sources does your audience value? • If you are writing for a professional or academic

audience, they may value peer-reviewed journals as the most credible sources of information.

• If you are writing for a group of residents in your hometown, they might be more comfortable with mainstream sources, such as Time or Newsweek.

• A younger audience may be more accepting of information found on the Internet than an older audience might be.


Periodicals are print sources that are published weekly, monthly or quarterly, such as magazines, newspapers and journals.

They can be described as either

scholarly or popular.


Scholarly Journals contain articles written by professionals in the field. The articles may be original research or an extension of previous research, may be illustrated with graphs or tables, and will include a reference list.

Articles submitted to a scholarly journal are peer-reviewed or juried, meaning other experts read and suggest revisions to the author before the final version is accepted for publication.


Popular magazines are not in-depth enough to be scholarly. The magazine may have an area of interest; for instance, the magazine Parenting is devoted to raising children, while Time is a news magazine. Still, the articles in magazines are intended as overviews for general readers.

Authors may or may not be named, there may be illustrations or charts, but there won't be a bibliography at the end.


When deciding if a source is being objective about the information it is presenting, look for some of the following techniques used to convince readers that what they are reading is fact when it may not be.

Loaded language — using words and sentences that solicit a positive or negative response from the reader


Misquoting a source — this often happens in the news media when reporters reword, paraphrase or manipulate a statement or source’s information

Selective facts — taking information out of context or selective use of data—picking only information that supports the argument and leaving the rest out


Distortion or stretching the facts —making issues more extreme by using misinformation or exaggeration

Flawed research —basing a claim on too small a sample, manipulating statistics, using “fuzzy science” or “bad math,” failing to report contrary conclusions from other scientists.


Assessing Websites

The web is self-published. Beyond the criteria mentioned for all resources, look for additional proof of value in websites. Some hoax sites look very credible until viewed with a critical eye. Look for:

Mission/Vision/Purpose Statement —reveals purpose of the website and point of view


Credentials —look for a well-regarded sponsoring organization or an expert author (Webpage content may not list an individual author).

Domain name —Is the domain appropriate for the content? .com is a commercial site and is the least trustworthy (unless affiliated with a known entity like a news organization)Better bets are .gov or .mil for government information, .edu for education, or .org for non-profit organizations


Date of last revision —this reveals how recently the content of a website has been reviewed

Contact information — is there a physical address and telephone number the researcher can use to contact a real person with questions?


Loaded language —words that assign emotional value can be used to manipulate attitude. (“Patriot” sounds better than “vigilante,” “insurgency” less scary than “civil war”)

Links —do other reputable websites link to the website, and does it link to other reputable sites?


My discussion of APA Style is taken from the Purdue OWL, especially these pages:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/




The Basics of In-Text Citation:

APA format follows the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text (Jones, 1998), and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.


If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work, reference only the author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text citation.

All sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.


Italicize titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, movies, television series, documentaries, or albums: The Closing of the American Mind; The Wizard of Oz; Friends.

For shorter works (periodical articles, individual episodes of TV shows), capitalize the first word of the title (and the first word after the colon, if there is one), and place the title in quotation marks (for in-text citations only – not on the reference page).


Short Quotations:If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference (preceded by "p."). Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.

According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).


Long Quotations:Place direct quotations longer than 40 words in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. Type the entire quotation on the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.

Jones's (1998) study found the following: Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask

their teacher for help. (p. 199)


If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference.

According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.


A Work by Two Authors: Name both authors in the signal phrase or in the parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text and use the ampersand in the parentheses.

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...

(Wegener & Petty, 1994)


A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you cite the source.

(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)

In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name followed by "et al." in the signal phrase or in parentheses.

(Kernis et al., 1993)


Unknown Author: If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are italicized or underlined; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.

A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using APA," 2001).


Organization as an Author: If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source.According to the American Psychological Association (2000),...

If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations.First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000)Second citation: (MADD, 2000)


Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses:

When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list, separated by a semi-colon.

(Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)


Citing Indirect Sources:

If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the parentheses.

Johnson argued that...(as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102).


Electronic Sources:

If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date style.

Kenneth (2000) explained...


Unknown Author and Unknown Date:

If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").

Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," n.d.).


Sources Without Page Numbers

When an electronic source lacks page numbers, try to include information that will help readers find the passage being cited.

• When an electronic document has numbered paragraphs, use the abbreviation "para." followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, para. 5).

• If the paragraphs are not numbered and the document includes headings, provide the appropriate heading and specify the paragraph under that heading.


Reference list• All lines after the first line of each entry in your

reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.

• Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work for up to and including seven authors.

• Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.


Templates for Introducing QuotationsX states, “__________.”

As the world-famous scholar X explains it, “________.”

As claimed by X, “______.”

In her article _______, X suggests that “_________.”

In X’s perspective, “___________.”

X concurs when she notes, “_______.”


Templates for Explaining Quotations

In other words, X asserts __________.

In making this claim, X argues that __________.

X is insisting that _________.

What X really means is that ____________.

The basis of X’s argument is that ___________.


As always, let me know if I can be of help.

[email protected]

912-429-9739

mailto:[email protected]

ls526 unit 3 march 15 th part 2, seminar 3 choosing reliable sources citing sources in apa style...

Documents

credibility of sources

recent sources

type of sources

sources dont

mainstream sources

reliable sourcesciting

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credible authors