MLA citing on the

Internet/Web

Is Everything On The Web True?

Presented by: Brian Slevin

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES OF "WORKS CITED" PROBLEMS

OR

HOW TO GET A BAD GRADE ON YOUR "WORKS CITED" LIST

Lack of Accuracy and Authority In Your Sources Will Result In a Poor

Grade

Your web sites need to be written by reputable and

reliable writers. Who is the author of the page? Why is she or he an expert?

What organization is sponsoring the web page?

Watch out for personal web pages from free web hosts (Angelfire, Geocities or Xoom, Blogs, Myspace, etc.)

DOES THE WEB PAGE PASS

THE "EYEBROW TEST?"

You should suspect that the page is a personal web page if you see this symbol (~) in the address.

Here is an example: http://users.orac.net.au/~mhumphry/aborigin.html

Who is writing this page?

What organization is sponsoring it?

Click for Sample or watch video

Personal pages might also have the word "user" or "member" in the address.

http://members.tripod.com/~waycool_dude/main.html

Also - watch out for pages on free web hosts

(Angelfire, Geocities or Xoom, Blogs, Myspace, etc.)

Click for Sample of personal page or watch video

LET THE RESEARCHER BEWARE!!

Is an "eyebrow" web address always

the sign of a bad web site?

NO! Sometimes the pages are excellent. Check out who the author is. Here is an example:

at http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/

Click for Sample or view the video

BUT - ALWAYS BE SUSPICIOUS!!

And…. What about SPOOF SITES?

Click for Shards O’ Glass or watch the video….

BUT - NOT ALL BAD WEB SITES ARE SO OBVIOUS

HERE ARE SOME CLASSIC EXAMPLES OF SITES LACKING AUTHORITY:

(Some of these could have turned up in a paper you wrote in the past!)

Photo used with permission of Max Velasco Knott, Managing Editor, The New University, University of California, Irvine.

DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU FIND ON A GOOGLE SEARCH

RESEARCH TOPIC - Pop Culture in the 1970's

Type in the following question: Where did Elvis die? Do this now!

Are all the answers the same?

One link will bring you to: http://www.elvis-is-alive.com/

RESEARCH TOPIC – Pearl Harbor

http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00296/PearlHarbor.htmIt LOOKS like it could be a good site.

Even the address looks respectable. The word library is even in it. And it ends in .org. So... what's wrong?

Look for a link about the author to find out or check out the video on the next slide….

DO VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES CAUSE VIOLENT BEHAVIOR?

https://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~jakosmas/project2.html

Click for sample or watch video…

RESEARCH TOPIC - Basketball

History of Basketballhttp://www.history-of-basketball.com/index.htm

Who is the author of this site?

Click for Site or watch video…

RESEARCH TOPIC - Animal Rights

BONSAI Kittenhttp://www.shorty.com/bonsaikitten/

Who is the author of this site? Is there somewhere that you can order the necessary equipment online?

Do any reputable sites link to it? If I check www.snopes.com will it show up as a hoax site?

Click here for sample or watch video…

But - What If you are just not sure about a site?

What can you do?

“Who you gonna call?”

HOAXBUSTERS!!!

Here are some dependable "hoax busting" sites:

http://www.snopes.com/

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/

http://urbanlegends.about.com/

Or you could just ask Mr. Slevin =)

See page 1 of your handout

Remember: It is your job to locate reliable sources.

Your teacher will not be able to accept the parts of your paper that are based on unacceptable sources.

When in doubt - find another source.

A sponsoring organization is very important to help you determine if a web page is authoritative.

Kurt Vonnegut, New York State Author 2001-2003http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/vonnegutkurt.html

Too Many Advocacy Web Sites Or Too Few Objective Sources Will

Result In a Poor Grade

Advocacy sites have a commercial, political or social agenda.

The authors of the page may want to sell you a product, an idea, a political agenda or a social position.

REMEMBER! It does not mean that the information is incorrect. But - it might be biased or slanted towards the authors’ opinions.

Examples of advocacy web sites

The NRAhttp://www.nra.org/

The Brady Campaignhttp://www.bradycampaign.org/index.asp

Lack of Currency and Coverage In Your Sources Will Result In a Poor

Grade

COVERAGE

You will need a lot of information to do a thorough job of researching your topic.

FOR A SUPERIOR grade (at least 6)

If you have MORE than the minimum required number of sources, you will probably have a much better paper.

Minimum Number of sources (5)

Be careful that your sources are not too old.

Not everything on the web is up-to-date.

Many pages were uploaded in the early 90's and just left to "rot".

SOMETHING ELSE TO

WATCH OUT FOR!!

Lack of Variety In Media In Your Works Cited List Will Result In a

Poor Grade

Heavy dependence on one type of resource will usually not give you as much information as you need.

Basically don’t use 20 quotes from one website =)

If you do not use a variety of the required types of sources, you will get a zero and you can’t come tell me what a bad man/woman your teacher is because I will be on their side =)

What Types of Sources Are Helpful?

•GENERAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

•REFERENCE BOOKS

•BOOKS

•RESEARCH DATABASE ARTICLES

•WEB PAGES

Poor MLA Format & Content - Insufficient Or Incorrect Citation Information -Will Result In a Poor

Grade

NOTE: You would have to be terminally lazy to lose many points on MLA Format & Content.

You can access the CITATION machine off my website anytime, the link will always be there.

http://citationmachine.net/

Watch the tutorial on how to use it for even the most insane research….

See page 2 of your handout

Did I check if it was a hoax?

Of course =) Nothing listed on any of the hoax websites and I found several other websites that have similar articles…

http://in.news.yahoo.com/040411/139/2ci0w.html

Also lists it as real as does the website ananova.com which typically publishes “weird” stories.

So all websites collaborate with the fact that some doctor named Dr. Friedrich Bischinger believes eating the contents of your nose is good for strengthening your immune system…I don’t believe it but he does =)

WHAT SHOULD YOUR COMPLETED

WORKS CITED LIST LOOK LIKE?

To see an example, click here or watch the video ;)

See page 3 of your handout

With just a little careful detective work - I know you will all be able

to find some really great web sites!

BEST OF LUCK FROM MR. SLEVIN

YOUR INFORMATION SUPERHERO =)

DON’T FORGET!

I AM ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO HELP NO MATTER WHAT GRADE YOU ARE IN (Just don’t ask for tissues, pens,

pencils, band aids, tape, loose-leaf…)

I gotta stop wearing these

tights to work…