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Finding & Evaluating Sources

Your assignment for tonight (and the rest of the week) is to gather sources from the Internet related to your topic. We will evaluate your sources and, if found reliable, we will learn how to create a bibliographic citation for each. You will need your notecards for this, so please bring them by Wednesday. The 4X6 or 5X7 notecards work best. You will need from 10-20 each, depending on how many sources you find.

Please evaluate each source before printing:

Relevance -- Is the source related directly to your topic? How long is the article, more than a page?

Reliability -- Is the source reputable? Is it connected to a university or library? Is there an author? Has the article been published in print?

Print out a copy of each source you find, and keep your citation worksheet handy. Also, staple each source individually as you print it. If you do this now, it will save you time later.

As discussed in class, the best way to find articles on topics pertaining to literature is to go through a database that collects articles in that field. Many of these databases are subscription based, and this is why access is often restricted. We will visit the Louise Williams branch of the Ouachita Parish Library system on FRIDAY, where we will learn how to search the databases they have available. You will be able to access that information from home with a Ouachita Parish Library card.

Although the best information can be hard to find through a search engine like Google, there are some free services that are quite useful:

Find Articles collects articles from (mostly popular) periodicals. You can search their database using keywords and print out full text articles. When you find an article that you like, look for the "print" icon at the bottom of the page. Clicking there will give you a print-ready copy, without all of the junk on the page.

Note that when you use an article found through Find Articles, or any other database, you must include that information in the citation for the source.

Google Scholar searches sites related to academic research, which means that the sources are credible but hard to access. Once you have gotten your results for a search, pick an entry and click "web search." Sometimes you can get articles that are usually available only by subscription, but which have been re-posted. You might want to try it for yourself.

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