1. Online Research and Citing
Sources for Speeches

2. Internet Research
 Internet research is an easy
way to obtain information
about your topic.
 However, not everything
online is college-level
quality
 Evaluating the quality of a
website involves looking at:
 Credibility
 Objectivity
 Currency

3. Criteria for Internet Research
 Credibility
 Can you establish who wrote the article? Do they have
the necessary credentials?
 Objectivity
 Is the author presenting an objective point of view or a
biased opinion?
 Currency
 Is this information current? For some topics like
technology, the environment, and medical advances,
you should use only the most current information.

4. Determining Website Credibility
 We’ll look at six websites
 Try to determine if they meet the
criteria for internet research or not.
 What principle of internet research
might they violate?
 Note: these websites may contain
copyrighted material and are used only
for educational purposes

5. Wikipedia

6. Verdict: Not Credible
 Why not?
 Wikipedia is a great source of general
information for personal use. However, for
college level research, you should use primary
resources where you can check the validity and
credibility of the information directly.

7. Blogspot

8. Verdict: Not Objective
 Why not?
 Blogs can be created by anyone who wants one.
Just because someone writes something doesn’t
mean they are qualified to do so or that they are
presenting a balanced view.
 Most people use blogs to share their personal
views.
 Most blogs are not research based or peer
reviewed.

9. About.com

10. Verdict: Not current
 Why not?
 There is NO DATE on this website, so it’s
impossible to tell how current the information is.
When it comes to a scientific topic, it’s best to
find the most current information possible, as
the information is constantly evolving.
 It’s a good rule of thumb that if you can’t find an
author or date, don’t use the website.

11. Journal Article

12. Verdict: Credible
 Journal Articles are usually upfront about
who wrote them and the credentials of that
person.
 Most journals note up front as well whether
or not they are peer-reviewed and scholarly.
 If you can find all the information about the
author and date, there’s a good chance it’s a
credible source of information.

13. Social Science Research Network

14. Verdict: Objective
 Empirical studies tend to be objective and
contain vast amounts of information
 Anything contained on a Research Network as
well will probably be peer-reviewed and
deemed scholarly as well.

15. SpringerLink

16. Verdict: Current
 The date is clearly stated on this document.
As I created this PowerPoint activity during
2012, one can safely assume a 2012 document
is a current source of information for Global
Warming.
 Other information on this website would also
indicate that this is a scholarly source of
information.

17. Works Cited
 A list of sources used in a presentation
 Use a uniform style
 APA
 MLA
 Designed to enable someone else to
locate the supporting material you
used

18. Citing Sources of Information
Correctly
 Works Cited Entry
 Internal References
 Verbal Citations
(your book calls them
“Oral citations”)

19. Which citation is which?
 Harter, L. A. (2008). Human  Internal
Communication (3rd ed.).
McGraw-Hill Publications. references
“According to James Darnell, a
researcher for the Institute of  Works Cited

Higher Learning…” Entry
 At the same time, their levels
of absenteeism declined  Verbal (Oral)
(Oyserman, Beebe, & Terry, Citations
2006)

20. Help with MLA
 Use these helpful websites to find out more
about citing sources.
 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/search.php
 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/74
7/2/
 http://www.easybib.com/
 For Verbal Citations, read this:
 http://libguides.greenriver.edu/content.php?pid
=53310&sid=2604145