Marlborough Colleges Research Centre

PACCR Evaluation of Web Information

2008-12-11T19:01:00.000-08:00

Before citing, information from a web site (or any source) the validity of that source needs to be established, at the every least it would be sensible to consider;

Purpose: What Is the main purpose of the site is it to inform, advocate a cause, to advertise a product or service, or trying to attracted viewers so a product or service can be advertised.

Author: Does the author / organisation have appropriate education, training, or experience to write with authority on the topic. Check site documents, url’s or external sources to find out more about the author / organisation.

Content: Is the content biased. Is there evidence of a "vested interest" in the topic? Is the content balanced? Is the content referenced? Are links provided so the source can be checked?

Coverage: Shop around for the best source. Compare the page to others on the same topic. Do they agree? What are the differences

Currency: When was the information added? When was the information updated?

Recognition: Has the site been recognized as exemplary by others linking to it, tagging or citing it.

Adapted from : net.TUTOR(Revision June 25, 20082008).

net.TUTOR, 2008. The Ohio State University. [Online]. Available: http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/[2008, December 13]

G Lancaster

Plagiarism

2008-12-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia (2008) states that“Plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work”. As a student, this is an issue because you are often asked to produce an assignment, essay or presentation that:

Demonstrates you know what has already, been said and written on a topic..

Demonstrates that you can develop an idea based on what has already been said and written and write something new and original.

Discuss the opinions of experts and authorities on a topic and defend / disagree with those opinions.

List adapted from:
Purdue University OWL (2008).

At the very least it would be pretty silly to ignore all the knowledge and information that has been developed in the past when you are writing up an assignment or presentation.

To avoid plagiarism, when completing written work, you must indicate where the information/ideas/words you have used came from. This is called referencing or citing your sources. There are many ways to reference material and different subjects and institutions have their own ways of doing it. See for example
http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/about/sis/sis_refstyles.htm.
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/library/learning/s_refstyles.shtml.

The two most common are APA (American Psychological Association) and Harvard.
As you move from year 9 to year 13 the referencing you do should become closer to international standards. At the very least you must provide a list (bibliography) of all the sources that you used in an assignment in a consistent format. This list is on a separate page at the end of your work. If in doubt ask the teacher requesting the work.

References.

Purdue University OWL. Avoiding plagiarism. Available on line: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/ [2008, December 6th].

Wikipedia. Plagiarism. Available online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism [2008, December 6th].

G Lancaster

Google Tips

2008-12-10T16:02:00.000-08:00

If you do not know what happens when you use

Quotes

Minus

Plus

Define:

Filetype:

number..number

Site:

In a google search box then you need to watch this video.

G Lancaster