Why is finding good reliable information important

•Produce reliable information

•Academic merit

•Academic success

Steps in finding good reliable information

• Research topic / assignment

• Read the topic carefully

• Understand what is required of you (content and instruction [ list, discuss, describe])

• Keywords and Boolean

• Identify the places to search

• Search process

Read the topic Carefully

• List the colours of the South African flag

• Describe the colours of the South African flag

• Discuss the process in developing the South African flag

petrol or fuel or electricity

Discuss the energy crisis in South Africa

challenges or problems

((energy OR petrol OR fuel OR electricity) AND (crisis OR problems) AND (South

Africa))Keywords and Boolean

AND / OR ? *

• AND = Combines 2 or more keywords

• OR = Synonyms or alternate keywords• ? = Wildcard = wom?n = women/woman

• * = Truncation = child* = child’s

children …

Information Found in

• People’s heads

• Books (print and electronic)

• Magazines / journals

• (Print and electronic)

• Internet / World Wide Web

• Newspapers

Books vs Journals

• Book deals with one subject• Greater depth• Outdated• Journal • It is presumed that you know something of

the subject matter• Currency• Articles are short – variety

Training Sessions

• Catalogue

• Bibliographic

• Full Text

• Internet

Catalogue

Bibliographic

Full Text

Identifying good reliable information

• Author• Date of publication• Edition or Revision• Publisher• Title of journal• Intended audience• Objective reasoning• Coverage• Writing style

(www.library.cornell.edu/olinurus/ref/research/skill26.htm

Web site

• What can the URL tell you?

• Who wrote the page?

• Dated / Currency / timely?

• Is information cited authentic?

• Does the page have overall integrity and reliability as a source?

• What’s the bias. Propaganda, misinformation and disinformation

Summary

• Accuracy

• Authority

• Currency

• Objectivity

• Coverage

(www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/reserach/webeval.html

Reading and Note Taking

• Summary

• Highlight

• Remember where you got your information from!!!!! Record !!!

Writing the Assignment

• Introduction

• Body

• Conclusion

Bibliography / List of References

• BookCook, K.S. 2007. Social exchange theory.

London : Sage.

• Journal Fry, B. 2008. Fast food that is good for you.

Better Nutrition, 70 (2): 63-70.

• Reference Techniqueshttp://www.uj.ac.za/Default.aspx?alias=www.uj.ac.za/library

Plagiarism

• “Plagiarism is the practice of claiming or implying original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else’s written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one’s own without adequate acknowledgement.”

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism

(January 28, 2008)