Researching Skills: Helpful Tips

We discussed in class today the importance of good research skills.  Researching well will help you write a better paper.  Hopefully we now know more about plagiarism and understand how to properly cite and paraphrase sources.

Remember the importance of evaluating websites.  Look for:

• a bibliography
• author
• a credible source (like a university)
• keep in mind when it was last updated

We also discussed academic vs. non-academic sources.  Academic sources are things like journals that have been peer-reviewed.  While Wikipedia can be a good starting point, keep in mind it is open-source and should not be used in your paper.  Go to the original source for information.  Here are a couple of sources for finding journal articles: http://www.doaj.org/ and http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/dean/peer_reviewed.htm  You can also go on the library wiki site http://libertyhslibrary.wikispaces.com/Before+you+go+a-Googlen%27 and try the Gale search engine, specifically the Criminal Justice one.  

And maybe one of your best discoveries today for this paper, Google Scholar.

Remember to keep a list of your sources linked to your notes.  General formatting guidelines for APA can be found here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/  Remember that Word can do citations and keep a bibliography for you.  

If you don't have Word on your computer, OpenOffice is an open-source free word processing program. 

Research Skills: Plagiarism Activity

As we begin work on our Supreme Court Analysis Papers, we are going to start by learning more about plagiarism.  

1. First go to this website:  http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/plagiarism/ Be sure to click on the red boxes to answer the questions on find out more information.
2. Next check out this PowerPoint on plagiarism.  http://www.lycoming.edu/library/instruction/tutorials/plagiarism.aspx
3. Now go to this site http://www.lycoming.edu/library/instruction/tutorials/plagiarismGame.aspx and play the game.  When you finish, take a screen shot.  Paste it in Word and under the picture tell me 5 things you learned about plagiarism today.  This will be graded.  If you do not know how to take a screenshot, there are directions on the Dropbox site, called, “to save a screenshot” in the AP Gov folder. Also directions on http://take-a-screenshot.org/
4. Finally upload the document from Word with your screenshot and 5 things you learned onto dropbox.  Directions for uploading on dropbox can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/help/90/en (scroll down for the on the website directions).

Go to www.dropbox.com

Username: cgdelong@bedford.k12.va.us
Password: ilovegov
Folder: AP Gov, then Plagiarism Activity 

Afterwards, you can research court cases.  Narrow down to the ones you are interested in.  You could start here:  http://www.streetlaw.org/en/Landmark/Cases