Research Infographic
By Valeria Sanchez
Where do you go to gather relevant information.
There a variety of sources and links you can use for information. Some include EBSCO Host and Mid-Continent Library. When you go on EBSCO Host you would want to click on Explora-Middle School. This is a search engine similar to google or yahoo, the only difference is that this search engine is more relevant for research. In the Mid-Continent website you are going to need to enter the school code 20005001149413. After you have successfully entered you will see to places too choose from, kids homework help and teens homework help. Both will be open to a variety of websites for research that are categorized in subjects such as, World History, Literature, etc.
How do you use key words effectively in finding information?
when you have a research topic, you always want to focus on the main words. For example If one of my research topic where to be "What was the year Abraham Lincoln became president?" then your key words would be "year Abraham Lincoln president" trying to ignore simple words like "a, the, and, etc" A tool that you could probably use would be Ctrl+F and a little box will pop up. In that box you could type any word you would like and after you hit enter it will find all the words that match the word you typed coming from the page you are on.
How do you decide weather a website or source is credible and accurate?
First look at the url. If it ends with ".com" or ".net" then its probably not the most best choice you could go for as to credible and accurate sources. You want to go websites that end in ".org" ".gov" or ".edu". These are some of the best choices you could go for. After you have chosen your website look for the date it was published to see if the information is up-to-date. My recommendation is no more older than a year and a half from the present date. Check to see if pop-ups continuously are getting in your way. If they are then it is probably not the best but neither doesn't mean it is bad, just that you would have to be careful.
What is the difference between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing?
Quoting is when you take exact words or phrase of an article or website and put quotation marks around it signifying that these are not your own words and that they are someone else's work. Paraphrasing is when you take someone's words or phrase and carefully change the wording and make it "your own" while still using the same man idea. Summarizing is when you take a article or some type of paragraph, words, or phrase and make a brief short description. Most importantly You have to cite your source at the end of all three of these.
What is plagiarism and how do you avoid it?
Plagiarism is when you take someone else''s work and play it off as you own without permission from the owner. For example say I take the Mona Lisa and sell it to a guy and I tell him this is my artwork. That is plagiarism. I took the Mona Lisa, I didn't get permission from Van Gogh, and I played it off as my own by selling it to that one guy. That is plagiarism and the consequences could be even going to jail.
What is MLA citation?
MLA citation is when show what sources you used for your research. In-text citations is when after you have cited your source the authors last name and page number is inside the place where you cited and a full reference should be available when searched. A works cited page is when a list of works that you cited in the middle of your paper.