Your Mission Find 5 Credible Sources for your Presentation on Parenting
How can I tell if my source is credible?
Evaluating the quality of sources is especially important for parents because there is so much conflicting
information and so many fads for child rearing. There is so much information available, especially on
the internet, you might begin to ask, “How can I tell if my source is good?” The best place to start is to
find out if the source is “credible”; for our purposes, credible articles should be valid (accurate) and
reliable (consistent). To ensure that they are, credible sources are “peer reviewed” to check that the
quality of the research meets certain standards. Credible sources are also primary sources as opposed
to secondary sources (writing about someone else’s findings instead of going directly to the findings).
Some examples of secondary sources are newspapers, popular magazines, brochures and many web
sites. Just because you find a web site authored by a “Dr.“ or a professional organization does not mean
that the source is credible.
How do I find a credible source?
You can always ask a reference desk librarian at a local college, but if you are limited to the internet
there are still a lot of sources available. Our syllabus also has some suggestions for finding credible
sources. Once you find a source you are interested in make sure that it is current and that you are
reading the “full text” version, not just the summary.
I made a podcast to give you an example of finding an article; just go here
http://screencast.com/t/YlM3WZ7DASRE.
Here are some additional sites to help you understand more about choosing a credible source:
http://www.lib.jmu.edu/help/peer.aspx
http://library.duke.edu/services/instruction/libraryguide/crediblejournal.html
http://guides.lib.umich.edu/content.php?pid=296444&sid=2433972
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/1/
When looking for credible sources, here are a few resources we encourage you to use:
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LDS.org
Lib.byui.edu
o The following resources can be found on the library home page. They will give you
access to thousands of peer-reviewed credible journals and books. Do not use
newspaper articles, regular magazine articles, and other news sources:
 Proquest
 Academic Search Premier
 JSTOR
Google Scholar
Books and credible journals
Assignment Description from the syllabus:
You will facilitate an online group discussion about an issue or topic related to parenting using Adobe
Connect. There are all kinds of topics on parenting you could choose from. Along with facilitating a
discussion, you are to study the topic and share relevant information with group members. It is expected
that for this activity you will research your topic more deeply. If you choose to do further research on a
topic covered in class, you must demonstrate additional learning through your research. Also, you may
build upon, but not duplicate or recycle, research you have done for any other class.
In preparation for this activity, read/study five credible articles/chapters that discuss the issue you want
to learn about. Begin to structure how you will facilitate the discussion and share information by
preparing a one-to-two page outline. At least three of the five sources must be from non-Church related
sources and of a credible nature. Readings from FAML 220 cannot be counted for the 5 sources, but they
may be used to supplement your sources.
All sources need to be properly formatted using APA (or MLA). See Course>Additional Resources>Citing
Sources.