1. Recognizing Credible Sources and Finding Primary and Secondary Sources
What are they?

2. Credibility Definition:
1.capable of being believed; believable: a credible statement.
2.worthy of belief or confidence; trustworthy: a credible witness.
Credibility is important!
If your research is flawed, so is your argument.
If you use credible sources, you can believe them, and your readers can believe you.

3. How do I know if my sources are credible?
Most books you find in library nonfiction are credible.
Most large newspapers are credible.
New York Times
Charlotte Observer
Washington Post
Scholarly journals are usually credible.
JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)
Most government publications are credible.
Reputable organizations are usually credible.
American Cancer Society
World Health Organization
American Red Cross
Most information from colleges is credible.
.edu websites

4. How do I know if my sources are credible?
You can automatically rule out:
Wikipedia
Myspace
Geocities
Blogs
Friendster
Personal sites

5. Using the Internet for Research
The internet offers the BEST information on MANY topics.
The internet offers the WORST information on MOST topics.
You can use internet resources for research papers, but you have to be careful.

6. Credible Internet Sources
Ways to tell a credible internet source:
Looks professional
The website doesn’t look like it was made by a 4- year-old with a crayon
All or most links are working
Information offered is easy to verify
The website offers links to where they found their information
The sources of their information is also credible

7. Credible Internet Sources
It is easy to contact the owners of the website for more information or to ask questions
The site is up to date
Information from 1991 is not listed as “recent”
There are no errors
The site uses proper spelling and grammar
The website is appropriate
There is no inappropriate language, graphics, or photos

8. Credible Internet Sources
These guidelines are not 100%
When in doubt, ask for help from a teacher or librarian
If you’re still not sure, DON’T use it
Be careful with .com sites
.com sites commercial sites that are frequently trying to sell something, which means they are biased in some way
Sites with lots of advertisements are usually less credible

9. Citing Sources With MLA
It’s not as hard as it used to be.

10. Citing Works in Research Papers
If you use ANY information from a source in your paper, you must CITE it.
Works Cited Page
In-Text Citations
If you didn’t say it yourself and you don’t cite it, it is plagiarism.
Plagiarism can result in:
A zero for the assignment
A requirement to redo the entire assignment
In college, plagiarism may fail you for an entire course
In college, plagiarism may result in expulsion, with no tuition refund

11. Plagiarism Is much easier to spot than it used to be
Doesn’t take very long for a teacher to check
A teacher can type 10 words of your paper into a search engine, and within seconds, compare it to tens of thousands of other papers that have already been written
In high school, many teachers believe that you are guilty until proven innocent of plagiarism
Is easy to avoid
Citation makers
MLA style sheets

12. How to Cite Sources
Citation makers will write your works cited page for you if you have the right information on your sources
Books, articles, and websites are all cited differently
The more information you have, the better
When you find a source that you think you can use, you need to make sure you have several things

13. Making Citations Your checklist:
Author
Title
Publication company
Publication location
Publication date
Page numbers
Date accessed online
Editor
ENTIRE web address
You might not always be able to find all of this information, but get as much as you can.

14. Citation Maker
Go to Son of Citation Machine
Click on “MLA” at the top left of the page.
Click on the type of source you want to cite.
Fill in the boxes for your source.
Click “Submit”.
Voila!  Your citation is written.

15. Identifying your sources- Primary or Secondary?
How can you tell the difference?

16. Primary sources
A primary source is an original object or document; first-hand information.
Primary source is material written or produced in the time period that you may be investigating.
Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.   

17. Primary Source Diaries and journals
Example: Anne Frank was a teenager during World War II. She kept a diary or journal the years before she died in a concentration camp. Her diary was later published as the “Diary of Anne Frank”. This is a primary source.
Example: Sarah Morgan was young woman during the Civil War. She wrote in her diary or journal what happened to her and her family during the war. This is a primary document because it was first hand. She wrote it at the time it happened.
Sarah Morgan Dawson: A Confederate Girl's Diary

18. Primary Source Autobiographies
An autobiography is when you write a story or book about yourself.
Example: Nelson Mandela wrote his autobiography about events in his life called “Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. This is a primary document because he wrote his first hand experiences.

19. Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”
Primary Source
Speeches are considered Primary Sources.
Examples of Speeches:
Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”
Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream”
All of the President’s Inauguration Speeches.

20. Primary Source
Historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution are primary documents. They were drafted and signed.
Other Primary Sources would be
Birth Certificates
Government records
Deeds
Court documents
Military records
Tax records
Census records
Art

21. Primary Source
Published first-hand accounts, or stories are considered primary resources.
Example: 2008 Presidential candidate Senator John McCain talked about his “own” experiences as a Vietnam prisoner of war. It is a primary source because he was there, experienced the events and shared it first hand.
The television stations found footage of Senator McCain at the time that he was released. Those videos are also considered primary sources because it was filmed when it occurred.

22. Primary Source
Sound Recordings and interviews are considered primary resources.
Example 1: During the Great Depression and World War II, television had not been invented yet. The people would often sit around the radio to listen to President Roosevelt’s war messages. Those radio addresses are considered “primary sources.”
Example 2: During the election Barack Obama, had many interviews that were televised. Those interviews are considered primary sources.

23. Primary Source Photographs and videos are primary sources.
Example 1: Photographers during World War II took photographs of battles and/or events during the war. Those photographs are primary sources. Those were taken during actual events.
Example 2: The same holds true for videos or film created during an event. A film was made interviewing President Bush. That film would be considered a primary source.

24. Primary Source Letters are considered primary documents.
Example: Soldiers during wars wrote to their families about war events they experienced. Those letters are considered primary sources.

25. Secondary Source Biography
Example: A biography is when you write about another person’s life. Alice Fleming wrote a biography on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. This is a secondary document. It was written about him after he died.

26. Primary or Secondary Sources?
Newspaper and Magazine articles can be a primary or secondary sources.
If the article was written at the time something happened, then it is a primary source.
Example: The articles written on Barack Obama’s inauguration in are primary sources.
However, if a reporter in wrote about George Washington’s inauguration using information written by someone else (1789), that would be a secondary source.

27. What is a Secondary Source?
A secondary source is something written about a primary source.
Secondary sources are written "after the fact" - that is, at a later date.
Usually the author of a secondary source will have studied the primary sources of an historical period or event and will then interpret the "evidence" found in these sources.
You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information.

28. Secondary Source Think about it like this….
If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondary source.
Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers, magazines, books or articles found that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research

29. Secondary Source
Almanacs, encyclopedias, history books (textbooks), etc. are all secondary sources because they were written “after” the these events occurred.