What you need to know:
Information Literacy:
You should be able to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate sources of information for your project. Make sure you know the instructor’s expectations - in most cases your information should only come from authoritative and reliable sources.
* For example, the
“national institute public health” is a much better source for information about good nutrition than “Mike’s good eats blog”.
TIP:
The suffix of a URL - such as “.edu, .org, or .gov” are often (but not always) a good indicator that the source is
good for your project
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism happens when you present someone else’s ideas and pass them off as your own. This can happen “intentionally”, like when someone cuts and pastes information and hands in the paper as his or her own; or unintentionally, like when you forget to cite the source of the ideas you are writing.
Plagiarism is a serious offence and the academic consequences can be quite severe. Typically, depending on the circumstances, you will receive a “0” for your project and a full letter grade reduction for the course.
TIP:
Plagiarism - Just DON'T DO IT!
Citing:
Citing your paper allows the reader to know where you are getting your information. If you have a statement in your paper that says - “new research has shown that smoking cigarettes is now good for you”, a reader might think “wait a minute – where did you get that information?”.
On the other hand, citing allows you to say to the reader - “hey, it’s not just me saying this, here is a source that is saying the same thing”.
TIP:
When in doubt – CITE!
You won’t get in trouble for citing too much.
You won’t get in trouble for citing too much.
Good Form:
Your instructor may have additional requirements or guidelines.
TIP:
Make sure you are clear about your instructor’s formatting expectation before you begin the project
