Selection 2 (cont.): Using sources responsibly and ethically

Research and Citing Sources

When you write in an academic setting, citing sources is important. Not only does it help give your analysis credibility (like using quotations does), but it also makes the research a starting point. The list of cited sources provide your reader opportunities to learn more. It also documents your ideas versus those of others. People’s ideas are their intellectual property. When you don’t cite where you got an idea, it’s essentially stealing those ideas. Perhaps it seems unimportant when it’s in chunks, but think about what you’ve already learned about the problems of people taking other people’s words and slanting them -- using bias to change an audience’s perception.

For this project, you will use MLA8.  Use the following tips:

1. When you take notes, always use “....”
   
   
2. It’s a good strategy to take direct quotations - or to highlight what is a direct quotation (copied and pasted) so that you know what requires paraphrasing or embedding
   
   
3. Get the citation when you use the source.
   
   
4. Know what a citation should look like. (See OWL at Purdue’s website)
   
   



5. Know what you must cite:
   
   
1. All images
2. All articles
   
   
6. Get help when you need it! The www.easybib.com website will help you. Make sure you choose MLA 8.
   
   

Assignment: Using your research questions, find three text sources you think are interesting. Find at least one image. Write a citation for all of your sources. Keep the URL in the citation even though it’s optional. Paste the citations in alphabetical order in today’s assignment sheet.

Link to FCPS LIS Databases