Homework Help: english

Posted by amy on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 1:31pm.

This is the question?

To make supporting points it is important that one finds relevant, accurate, and reliable sources. What should you consider when looking for helpful sources? What are some red flags that indicate you should avoid a particular source?

My Answer

The first stage of evaluating your sources takes place before you do any searching. Take a minute to ask yourself what exactly you are looking for. Do you want facts, opinions (authoritative or just anyone's), reasoned arguments, statistics, narratives, eyewitness reports, descriptions? Is the purpose of your research to get new ideas, to find either factual or reasoned support for a position, to survey opinion, or something else. Becoming proficient at selecting sources will require experience, of course, but even a beginning researcher can take a few minutes to ask, "What source or what kind of source would be the most credible for providing information in this particular case?" Which sources are likely to be fair, objective, lacking hidden motives, showing quality control? It is important to keep these considerations in mind, so that you will not simply take the opinion of the first source or two you can locate. Try to select sources that offer as much of the following information as possible: Author's Name Author's Title or Position Author's Organizational Affiliation Date of Page Creation or Version Author's Contact Information. Red flags could be that the source as no author, or any references to follow up with.

Is this ok to sumbit for my answer.

english - SraJMcGin, Monday, August 29, 2011 at 1:34pm
Here's a marvelous post borrowed from Writeacher:

For Internet searching:
http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/
At this webpage, you can go immediately to the search sites (first three columns across the top) -- or even better you can scroll down until you see the section called HOW TO SEARCH THE INTERNET. Those are the links to start with. You'll not only learn how to come up with good search terms, but also how to evaluate the webpages you get as results. Some will be good and others will be garbage. You need to know how to tell the difference.

My favorite way to search is to go to Google's advanced search page http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en and put my search words or phrases into the first or second search box (either "all the words" or "exact phrase").

Learning to use Google or other search engines can save you time and help you learn to find information efficiently. Here are some websites that can teach you how:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/searchtips.html

http://www.pandia.com/goalgetter/index.html

http://websearch.about.com/mbody.htm?once=true&COB=home&PM=112_100_T

... and one to help you judge whether a particular website's information is worth your time:

http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/evaluate.html

Sra
english - amy, Monday, August 29, 2011 at 1:37pm
thank you

Answer this Question

Related Questions

English - What should you consider when looking for helpful sources? What are ...
Comp 156 - To make supporting points it is important that one finds relevant, ...
english - third revision - When evaluating online sources, one of the points to ...
English - please revise - eview the following Internet and University Library ...
second revision - English - When evaluating online sources, one of the points to...
ENGLSIH - What criteria should you look at to evaluate information? a) Relevant...
english - revise - Where do you normally find information for topics that ...
Finding and evaluating sources - Question 18 Of the following sources, which ...
english - after revision - In order to find information for topics that interest...
Finding and evaluating sources - 1.When should you begin choosing appropriate ...

For Further Reading

First Name:
School Subject:
Answer: