Narrow down your search
In order for two keywords to be searched for together, you must use these to bunch them.
What are quotations?
You include a quote in your essay. To avoid plagiarism, you must include this in parentheses after it.
What is the author’s last name and page number?
Art, Science, Medicine, and Pop culture sites should be updated within the last 2-5 years.
What is currency?
You are looking for a site on pop culture. You find this: A pop culture site updated yesterday, on topic, created by a writer of a pop culture magazine, no false statements. Is it reliable?
Yes. Pop culture sites should be as current as possible, the author has experience with this topic, and every detail has no bias.
This type of source is written by journalists for the general public and often appears in magazines or newspapers.
What is a popular source?
This search tool lets you look through multiple databases at once for articles, books, and more.
What is one search?
This page appears at the end of your essay and lists all the sources you used.
What is a works cited page?
If you are searching for pufferfish and you find a site focused on clownfish, it is not this.
What is relevant?
You are looking for a site on porpoises. You find this: A marine biology site updated last year, mainly on dolphins, author is marine biologist, no spelling errors. Is it reliable for your topic?
No, since the site is not on topic. Even though dolphins are closely related to porpoises, they are very different.
You find a 25-page article with an abstract, data tables, citations, and a DOI number.
What is a peer-reviewed journal article?
For your search, you need these types of words.
What are keywords?
In MLA, the title of a book is formatted this way.
What is italicized?
A history site is created by a person who taught history for 30 years.
What is authority?
You are looking for a site on bees. You find this: A site on bees updated one month ago, but you do not understand the words, written by a person who has little experience, multiple errors. Is it reliable?
No. The site is not on your reading level, the author has little experience, and there are spelling and grammatical errors.
This type of source provides firsthand evidence or direct data, such as interviews, letters, or original research studies.
What is a primary source?
This type of article is written by experts, reviewed by other experts, and published in academic journals.
What is peer reviewed?
You’re citing an online article with no page numbers. Instead of a page number, you include this.
What is just the author’s last name (no page number)?
You notice grammar errors and missing citations throughout the article.
What is accuracy?
You are looking for a site on Orthodox Judaism to compare with the other two forms of Judaism. You find this: A site on Orthodox Judaism updated 2 years ago, on topic, written by an Orthodox Rabbi, tries to convert people to Orthodox Judaism. Is it relevant?
No. The website is very bias. The purpose of a site is to inform or teach, not to persuade or sell!
The article summarizes and interprets several original studies instead of reporting new data.
What is a secondary source?
In order to know what sites are reliable for school, work, or everyday life, you could use this to evaluate your sources and websites!
What is C.R.A.A.P.?
You found an article by Maria Gonzalez titled “Study Habits of Community College Students” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, published June 2022, online. Write the correct MLA citation.
What is Gonzalez, Maria. “Study Habits of Community College Students.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2022, www.chronicle.com/studyhabits
A website should be used to inform or teach, not persuade.
What is purpose?
You are looking for a site about Ancient China. You find this: A site on Ancient China updated 5 years ago, on topic, written by a history teacher who taught for 30 years, no false statements or spelling/grammatical errors, used to teach. Is it reliable?
Yes! The site was written by an expert on the topic, it is on topic, there are no errors, and it is okay to have a site on history that was last updated 5 years ago except if there were any new discoveries.
You find a website ending in “.org” that advocates for a cause and includes opinion statements mixed with facts.
What is an organizational or advocacy website?