Tag: Citations

Research More Efficiently: Mine Your Sources

You’ve been assigned a research paper and shown how to use the library database. You’ve typed in your search terms and gotten results, but have one of two problems:

  1. You have a lot of results – possibly tens of thousands – and you don’t know how to figure out which authors or publications are important.
  2. You got very few results and don’t know where to go from here.

One tactic you can apply is to mine your sources. Read on to find out what that means.
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Avoid Plagiarism: Take Good Notes

Most students have heard of plagiarism, and most also understand that plagiarism can have serious academic consequences (more about plagiarism in a later blog post). Many students, however, don’t have a good grasp of how to avoid plagiarizing even when they are trying not to. One strategy you can use is to take good notes while you are conducting your research.

How can you use note-taking to reduce your risk of plagiarism?

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Peer Reviewed, Academic, and Reputable Sources: What the Heck are They and How Do I Find Them?

If you’re writing a college-level research paper, most likely your instructor has told you that you must use a certain type of “source.” The language used to describe these sources varies, but in general, your teacher expects you to use high-quality sources for the information in your paper. Let’s take this concept apart so you have a better understanding of exactly what your teacher expects.

Continue reading Peer Reviewed, Academic, and Reputable Sources: What the Heck are They and How Do I Find Them?

How to read an assignment sheet and rubric

This post builds off of the Before You Begin blog post, which provided you with some ideas of where to find out what your teacher expects of your writing submissions. In this post, we will review how to read an assignment sheet and a grading rubric, using examples from my own teaching.

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