LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
Part 2, Seminar 3
Choosing Reliable Sources
Citing Sources in APA Style
Integrating Source Material
Information for this presentation comes from
UC-Berkeley Library
Cornell University Library
Purdue OWL
Lakeland CC Library
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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 Guides
http://library.lakelandcc.edu/sourceevaluation.html
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.)
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
Assessing the credibility of sources:
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
Assessing the credibility of sources:
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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 peerreviewed or juried, meaning other experts read
and suggest revisions to the author before the final
version is accepted for publication.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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 nonprofit organizations
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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?
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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?
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
My discussion of APA Style is taken from the
Purdue OWL, especially these pages:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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).
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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).
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
Long Quotations:
Place direct quotations longer than 40 words in a freestanding 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)
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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)
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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)
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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).
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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)
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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)
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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).
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
Electronic Sources:
If possible, cite an electronic document the
same as any other document by using the
author-date style.
Kenneth (2000) explained...
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.).
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
Templates for Introducing Quotations
X 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, “_______.”
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
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
___________.
LS526 Unit 3 March 15th
As always, let me know if I can be of help.
vhill@kaplan.edu
912-429-9739