Avoiding Plagiarism
To learn what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, use the tutorial below:
- Oops, I Plagiarized Carlos & Eddie learn how to avoid plagiarism. UCLA Library
Learn about OSU's Academic Dishonesty policy.
Readings
Some articles on evaluating sources and teaching students to evaluate sources.
-
Teaching Students to Evaluate Source Reliability during Internet Research Tasks
Teaching Students to Evaluate Source Reliability during Internet Research Tasks by Christopher Sanchez, Jennifer Wiley and Susan Goldman -
Looking for Laura Secord on the Web: Using a Famous Figure from the War of 1812 as a Model for Evaluating Historical Web Sites
Tate, Marsha Ann. "Looking for Laura Secord on the Web: Using a Famous Figure from the War of 1812 as a Model for Evaluating Historical Web Sites." History Teacher 38.2 (2005): 225-240. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. -
Students Evaluating Internet Sources: From Versatile Evaluators to Uncritical Readers
Kiili, Carita, Leena Laurinen, and Miika Marttunen. "Students Evaluating Internet Sources: From Versatile Evaluators to Uncritical Readers." Journal of Educational Computing Research 39.1 (2008): 75-95. ERIC. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2010 -
Evaluating Search Results: An Empirical Analysis of Middle School Students' Use of Source Attributes to Select Useful Sources
Braasch, Jason L. G., et al. "Evaluating Search Results: An Empirical Analysis of Middle School Students' Use of Source Attributes to Select Useful Sources." Journal of Educational Computing Research 41.1 (2009): 63-82. ERIC. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2010. -
Evaluating Web-Sources: Internet Literacy and L2 Academic Writing
Stapleton, Paul. "Evaluating Web-Sources: Internet Literacy and L2 Academic Writing." ELT Journal 59.2 (2005): 135-143. ERIC. EBSCO. Web. 27 Oct. 2010.
Evaluating Your Sources
Not everything you find will be of high quality or appropriate to your topic. You need to carefully evaluate your sources before incorporating them into your research. Ask yourself some questions:
- Is the article peer reviewed? (see section on Peer Review for help to determine this)
- What is the authority of the author and source? Is the author an expert? Does s/he work for a reputable university or organization? Do the statistics come from a government source (generally high reliability) or somewhere else (evaluate these carefully).
- Are there biases in the publication?
- Judge the relevance to your subject and the discipline. When using and comparing statistics, do they cover the same time period?
- Is the information current? Does your subject require it to be?
Other things that may be important:
- Does the source have a bibliography? This can lead you to other sources.
- What other terminology is being used either by the author or by the database? Keep an eye out for other words you can use in your search statements.
Additional Tools
-
Purdue Online Writing Lab
A guide on evaluating sources. This includes sections on evaluating bibliographic citations, evaluating during reading, and evaluating print and internet sources. -
Evaluating Information Found on the Internet
Johns Hopkins University's guide to evaluating online sources. -
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
Guides, handouts and links to resources and exercises to help students learn to evaluate sources.
Last Update: September 29, 2010 10:10
