Reliable Sources

Reliable Sources

Source

 is a person, text, or other medium from which information is obtained for research

Primary sources

• contain information that comes from first-hand accounts

Secondary sources

• are written later and are based on primary sources.

plagiarism

• Authors must give credit when using a source to avoid

•  the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

citation

• is a reference to or a quotation from an outside source.

•  It is required whenever authors quote another person’s writing or refer to someone else’s ideas. 

• Types of citations include parenthetical citations, footnotes, and endnotes.

parenthetical citation

• the writer gives credit to the source by using parentheses at the end of the sentence

•  that contains the researched information.

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Footnotes

• are inserted at the bottom of a page,

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endnotes 

•  included at the end of a research paper or non-fiction book.

bibliography

• a list of all the books and sources used to research a paper, placed at the end of the text.

Checklist for Sources and Citations:

• select and gather information from a variety of print and digital sources relevant to a topic

• check that sources are credible, or reliable and trustworthy

• avoid relying on or overusing one source

• quote the source exactly, including punctuation

include in-text citations:

• Paraphrase: When these stories were overheard, slaveholders did not know what the enslaved people were really talking about. In this way, enslaved people could regain their voices as well as a sense of power (Abrahams 9).

• Quotation: “Perhaps the real reason that we tell stories again and again—and endlessly praise our greatest storytellers—is because humans want to be a part of a shared history” (Delistraty).

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include all sources in a bibliography or Works Cited list, following a standard format, such as MLA Style:

• Abrahams, Roger, D. Afro-American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New World. Pantheon, 1995.

• Delistraty, Cody C. “The Psychological Comforts of Storytelling.” The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/the-psychological-comforts -of-storytelling/381964/.

Multiple Choice

How should this bibliography entry be revised?

Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. 1903. 2017.

• Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. 1903. Empire Books, 2017.

• The Story of My Life, Helen Keller. 1903. Empire Books, 2017.

Multiple Choice

What is one way that a student can incorporate a quotation from Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life into the text of her research paper?

Quotation, page 60: “Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me”

• Keller described what happened after she realized that her teacher was spelling the word for water: “Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me” (Keller 60).

• . On page 60 Keller suddenly felt “a misty consciousness as of something forgotten.” She described it as a thrill of returning thought and said that “somehow the mystery of language was revealed to her.”

Multiple Choice

How should this bibliography entry be revised?

Biography.com Editors. “Helen Keller Biography.” A&E Networks Television, 16 Jan. 2019, www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967.

• Biography.com Editors. “Helen Keller Biography.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 16 Jan. 2019, www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967.

• Biography.com Editors. “Helen Keller Biography,” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 16 Jan. 2019

Multiple Choice

What is one example of a way to paraphrase lines from the informational article “Helen Keller”?

Quotation: “With the help of Sullivan and Sullivan's future husband, John Macy, Keller wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. It covered her transformation from childhood to 21-year-old college student.”

• To write her first book, Keller was aided by Anne Sullivan and John Macy, who would later marry Anne Sullivan. The book The Story of My Life told the story of Keller’s development from her life as a child to the age of 21, when she was attending college (Keller).

• To write her first book, Keller was aided by Anne Sullivan and John Macy, who would later marry Anne Sullivan. The book The Story of My Life told the story of Keller’s development from her life as a child to the age of 21, when she was attending college (Biography.com Editors).