How to Find Reliable Sources

Online

Before you click…• Any site ending in .edu normally

belongs to an educational institution. • While these sources might be helpful,

beware of political bias. Don’t take everything they say for fact, but rather, perspective.

Before you click…

• Any site ending .gov is normally a reliable web site belonging to the government.

• Government sites are good places to find statistics and objective reports, meaning no political bias.

Before you click…

• Any site ending in .org usually belong to non-profit organizations.

• These can be great sources or they can be crappy sources. Again, beware of political bias here.

Online Journals and Mags

• A reputable journal or magazine should contain a bibliography for every article.

• The list of sources within that bibliography should be pretty extensive, and it should include scholarly, non-Internet sources.

• Check for statistics and data within the article to back up the claims made by the author.

News Sources

• Every television and print news source has a web site. To some extent, you can rely on the most trusted news sources, but you should not rely on them exclusively. After all, network and cable news stations are involved in entertainment.

Where do I Start?

• If you have no idea where to begin, try www.google.com

• Type in your topic• Be sure to check out the “News” tabs

and the “Scholar” tab• If you use “ “ you will be able to get a better search

Another way to start…

• Go to www.wikipedia.com• Type in your topic, but make it much more

broad here• Read up to familiarize yourself with your

topic• Scroll down to “references” at the bottom

of the page. Click through these to begin your search

• You CAN NOT use this as a source…just to help you do research

Things to keep in mind…

• Make sure your sources have authors–What are their educational credits ?– Are they published in a scholarly

journal ?– Are they employed by a research

institution or university?

Things to keep in mind…

• If the author seems credible, check out their words cited page. You might find something there that they did not use that might be helpful to you.

How to analyze a website 101

Signs of a good source:• Facts and figures are used to support

arguments• Author is given• Cites source of facts and figures

How to analyze a website 101 (continued)

Signs of a bad source• Contains spelling/ grammar mistakes• No author is provided• No facts or sources to back up argument

Do not print from an internet source

• Be sure to copy the website…..• Then open Microsoft word• Then paste onto a word document• Be sure to copy the author and the web

address onto your page• Double check how many pages you have

before you print

You could also email a source to yourself

• 1. Copy the page• 2. Open up your email• 3. Set up the email to send it to yourself• 4. Paste the web page into the email• 5. Send the email to yourself• 6. Be sure to have the web address and the

author of the source

News sources to check out while you surf the web:

• www.NPR.org• www.huffingtonpost.com• www.newyorktimes.com• www.latimes.com• www.csmonitor.com• www.BBC.com• www.cnn.com • www.whitehouse.gov

How you get caught Plagiarizing

• This is an example of a portion of a paper from last year:

For runaways the facts tell an impersonal tale. It’s estimated that more than 1.5 million U.S youth run away or are sent away from home yearly. 68% are between the ages of 15-17. 35% of them had runaway before and haven’t returned. For example, a seventeen year old girl ran away with her older boyfriend. Her parents wouldn’t allow them to be together. She has been away from home every since.

BUSTED

• All I have to do is cut and paste a suspected sentence into Google and it will take me right to where the information was found.

• Watch-For runaways the facts tell an impersonal tale. It’s estimated that more than 1.5 million U.S youth run away or are sent away from home yearly.

• The words “impersonal tale” don’t strike me as something this student would say so I am going to enter that sentence into Google.

Consequence…No