Research Tips and Reminders

1) Your Works Cited MUST have minimum 4 different sources listed, two being from databases.

2) No Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, eHow, ask.com, or other unreliable sources will be accepted.

3) Google is not a source! It’s a search engine to help you find your sources.

4) .org or .edu websites are the best quality, apart from the school databases. SweetSearch or Google Scholar will help eliminate unreliable sources for you.

5) ALL sources used for finding information should have an entry on the Works Cited page, including images.

6) When pulling information from a source, you can either use direct quotes or a paraphrase. Both will require documentation on the Works Cited page. Do not just copy and paste! This is a form of plagiarism! You need to either embed your quotes or change the information into your own words. o Hint for paraphrasing: read the source, minimize the page, and type in the information into your own words. Keep in mind, however, that you still need to document this on your Works Cited. o ANYTHING you didn’t already know needs to be documented!! Sample Works Cited Page / Slide  Works Cited should be on a separate printed sheet, or the last slide in your presentation.  Put all entries in a single list under the title Works Cited. Don’t bold or underline the title.  Double space (2 spaces) between the "Works Cited" title and the first entry.  Alphabetize your sources by the first letter of each entry.  No numbering or bullets.  If an entry takes more than one line, indent the additional lines five spaces or one-half inch (1 tab). (Do not indent the first line; indent the second line, third line, etc. This is called Reverse Indentation.)  Use a period at the end of each entry.  Italicize the titles of works published independently--books, plays, magazines, newspapers, films.  Use quotation marks to indicate the titles of short works that appear in larger works.  Double-space EVERYTHING. (That means leave one blank line after every typed line.) If using Microsoft Word, you set this up with “Format”, “Paragraph”, “Line Spacing”, “Double” before you start typing your Works Cited page. You can also use an online tool such as EasyBib.com or Bibme.org to assist in completing citations. If a database such as Encyclopedia Britannica or Fact of File is used as a source, the citation can be located on the article used in the database. You will only have to copy and paste the citation into your Works Cited.