Citing Sources
Ever feel booby trapped by a search engine? Imagine using an online catalog to search for a book, only your search sends you smack to page 129 of a book. You can’t see the author’s name, find the table of contents for the book, or even figure out when and where it was published. Web searches do the same thing, often landing you right in the middle of a web site. How do you find the information you need to cite the source? Here are some good puzzles to work out.
- You find this site while doing research on robots.
- Who (or what) is responsible for authoring this site? Is this original content? What is the purpose of the organization? What should you include in the bibliographic citation?
- Your search engine takes you to this tutorial on beginning game design.
- What kind of source is this? What type of publication is it (website, journal, book….)? Who publishes it and what is the mission of this publisher?
- You are looking for background information on the intelligent design movement and you find this site
- What type of source is this? What differentiates it from a print version of the same type of source? What might you watch out for when using this site?
- Take a look at this government web site
- What is the agency responsible for authoring and maintaining this site? The subagency? The sub-sub-agency? Which of these agencies is important to include in a bibliographic citation?
- For Mr. Rayburn’s banned book project a subfreshman did research on George Orwell’s novel 1984, which is about how a totalitarian regime uses propaganda and misinformation to control its people. The student finds this website.
- Should the student use this source? Why or why not? Who (or what) is the author?
Next Steps
Log into NoodleBib. Click on “Create a Personal ID” if you haven’t used NoodleBib in the past. Choose APA format and make the description “CL2” (or create a description of your choice).
Your assignment is to create citations for the following:
- The source of Item 1 (i.e., the New Scientist article; you are citing the video, not the article.)
- Item 2 (Imagine that you ended up using the Ready application in your final project. Note: do not actually download the Ready application, it is not necessary to do in order to cite.)
- Item 4 (hint: you can use the “author” field for the agency name)
IMPORTANT: Share your list to a class named Whodunnit (or I won’t be able to grade your hard work). Remember to read the little hints that NoodleBib gives you! This project is due on January 15th, 2019 by the end of the school day.