Helpful Research Tips
There is a handful of helpful tips, here are a few.
1. Find a good websites that is meant for research.
2. Don't search in sentences, use keywords.
3. Once you have found a reliable website, check the URL. (.edu is the most reliable.)
4. Don't copy and paste, paraphrase.
5. Cite all of your sources so you don't get caught for plagiarism.
How to gather more information.
Gathering information can be hard for these past few years because of the information. Relying on sources is hard because it could be someone just writing stuff down, or a professor at a university. Trusting sources and citing sources are really easy once you learn how to do it properly. First step is to not type full sentences in your search bar. Use keywords to find more on topic websites. Once you have found a website, look at the end of the URL; .com, .org, .gov, .edu, etc. For example look below this to see that at http://www.harvard.edu/media-relations it has an .edu, meaning that it comes from a university and that the information is really reliable.
How to find a Researching Website
It is very simple to find a website to help you with your research. First go to the Lakeview homepage. Next hover over About Our School. Then hover over Media Center, and click on Research. Depending on what research you are looking for, click on one of the side links.
What is a MLA
The citing format for a MLA is very simple. In a MLA you need to paraphrase the content so you don't say everything word by word, and quote your author in a reasonable way, put their last name. Always list your in text citations by taking parts of the quotes and distributing them into the MLA. An MLA looks like this.
Plagiarism and how to avoid it...
Plagiarism. Everyone will do it at one point in their life. Even though it doesn't sound like a big deal, it is against the law. People plagiarize because they often are lazy and want to get their work over with. You can avoid it by paraphrasing and citing your sources. Keep the main idea and quote it to avoid getting accused of plagiarism. Also if you can, try to contact the author and ask permission to use their work.
Wikipedia
People often use Wikipedia because it is the first resource, Wikipedia isn't bad, but anyone can change it so you don't know how to know if the source is reliable. Look at the URL to see if the domain is reliable. If you need help, look at the Lakeview homepage under library, then research, and use those research websites.
Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
There are differences between these citing sources.
Quoting: Just a small part of a phrase that you are taking. So just maybe three of a twelve word sentence.
Paraphrasing: When paraphrasing, you reword the authors thoughts, but still citing their name and other important words that the reader needs to know, to avoid plagiarism.
Summarizing: Summarizing is where you only give a brief summary of the whole article in just a few words.
How to search using keywords.
When using keywords, make sure you use the most important words in the sentence because they narrow down the topics. Just by leaving out the word "the", it narrows down the topic by at least a million. If the topic was, "When did Abe Lincoln get assassinated."
Try using Abe Lincoln, assassination. To narrow down the topic.