Vidovic 1 Nicholas P. Vidovic (2892851) Professor Laurenty English 102 4 March 2025 How to Look for Credible Information Wanting to draft a good paper is hard as you need to find actually credible information about the topic you want to talk about. Getting this credible information can seem so hard to do that many people either do not check the info they got for the paper or completely give up. However, finding these credible sources is not as hard as you might think. With these four steps to follow, the sources for a paper will be professional and credible for your paper to achieve immense success. Step 1: Finding information The very first step to getting your credible info is what you are going to write about. This topic can be about anything. As long as the paper is related to the topic you are writing about. Then it is all good, but what about getting this information? After all, many sites spread misinformation, have biases about the topic, or in worse cases, can give your device a virus. It is especially important that you stay clear from those sites, but what will you do? The answer for this is Purdue Owl as the site helps you navigate various questions about writing. The site lists that you first need to find the author of what you are researching as they are writing the topic in their respectful fields. Next is to the most resent sources of what you are writing about. The last step is to be careful around the internet, but how? Vidovic 2 Step 2: Weeding out the Bad Seeds - Now that you know how to gather your information, how will you know that the sites used are good or bad? This step is about how to avoid these bad sites and trying to find reliable sources on what you are writing about. To begin this step, you need to find these bad sites. - Look for conflicting reasons for the topic you want to write about. If you are writing about the benefits of nuclear energy, it is best if you stay away from articles about how bad nuclear energy is. Another thing to avoid is biases in articles. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Sky News, WSJ, and many other news stations lean towards a narrative that fits in a certain agenda. If you need to use a news source, Ground News tells you what news articles are leaning politically in percentages. This way, you can detect biases in news sources much more easily. Vidovic 3 Both pictures from “7 Non-Scholarly Sources you should Never Reference” by Chris Drew at HelpfulProfesser.com - So, what counts as credible information? In summary from Chris Drew, the five main sites you should aim for in an article are Journal Articles, Textbooks, Government Reports, Assigned Readings, or NGO (Non-Government Organization) Research Papers. There are many other types of reliable site you can use for your paper, but if you can figure out how to find the right sites to figure out what info to use, then your paper is nearly ready. But are you? Vidovic 4 Step 3: Information Quiz - Now that all the explanations of how to find useful information is near complete, do you actually know what to do? In this section, five questions will be shown, and you have to guess if you know the info from the article about how to look for credible information. 1. What is the very first thing you do when drafting a paper? a. Finding bad sources b. Getting a virus on your device c. Find a topic you want to write about d. Formatting your paper 2. What website can help you with writing? a. Purdue Owl b. ChatGPT c. Batman d. Jersey Mike’s 3. How many steps are in this paper? a. Three b. Four c. Five d. Six Vidovic 5 4. All of these are reliable sources of information, except. a. MSNBC b. Textbooks c. Scholarly Sources d. NGO Papers 5. What is one website example you should use for reliable information? a. Essay Sharing Sites b. Wikipedia c. Stacy’s Fabulous Blogs d. Government Reports Now that you have completed the quiz, the last step to getting all the credible information is how to format it. After all, gathering all the information you need to use to make a paper and not knowing how to format said paper is a pretty big roadblock. Vidovic 6 Step 4: Formation This last step is how to format your paper. Most papers that are written are using MLA formatting. For all examples, Purdue Owl will be a helpful site for explanatory and visual comprehension. Usually, the MLA format is in Times New Roman 12-point font and doublespaced lines. The beginning of the article should have Numbered Pages in Header, your Name, Teacher Name, Class, and Date in DMY (day-month-year) format, along with the title of your article, which should be centered. Example: (Lastname) 1 (Name) (Teachers Name) (Class) (Day-Month-Year) (Article Title) At the beginning of each paragraph, they will all be tabbed over. This shifts the sentence written by five spaces every time. Finally, your works cited page will have a Works Cited title with your works at the bottom of the title formatted alphabetically. This usually starts with the author’s name, unless if you can’t find one, the quotation marks go first. Then the title of the article the author wrote and finally the site that it is from. Also, shift over the second sentence if you can by using the page bar at the top of the page. Vidovic 7 Example: “Title of Article” from Website – (https://website) Johnathan Johnson “Title of Article 2” from Website 2 – (https://website 2) :Example: :Example: :Example: :Example: :Example: Now that we have gone over all the steps, let us summarize what we discussed. You now know how to find credible and useful information as well as finding biases that may hold your paper back. You also learned how to format your paper in MLA formatting to for standardization purposes. What you do with this paper is completely up to you to decide. (1,003) Vidovic 8 Works Cited “MLA Formatting and Style Guide” from Purdue Owl – (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guid e/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html) “MLA General Format” from Purdue Owl – (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guid e/mla_general_format.html) “Using Research and Evidence” from Purdue Owl – (https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/establishing_arguments/resea rch_and_evidence.html) Chris Drew “7 Non-Scholarly Sources you should Never Reference” from HelpfulProfesser – (https://helpfulprofessor.com/bad-sources/)
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