Starting+Your+Research

=Starting Your Research=

By now, you should know what topic you are researching. If not, go back to Possible Topics and check the discussion board where you put your topic down. Today's focus is going to be on finding research dealing with your topic. You can use the links I gave you in the first part of this wiki (check the left-hand toolbar) or you can search by yourself. Just make sure when you are conducting your research and trying to find your information that you are using credible sources.

To check for credibility, you need to look at the URL and see what it ends with. Is it a .com? If so, it's most likely not a website you should be using. Usually the most credible websites are the ones that end with .org, .gov or .edu. However, just because it ends with that doesn't mean it is. For example, Wikipedia's web address is wikipedia.org. That does not mean that Wikipedia (or any of the Wikipedia associated sites) are credible for you to use because every day people can come in and change the information that is on the page. You need to stay away from Wikipedia when writing your paper.

If you have a question about a websites credibility, call me over and I will help you figure out if it is a good site to use or not.

As you are conducting your research, you should go on and be creating your works cited page. If you do not start creating your works cited page until you are finished, you might find that the URL that you gave me is wrong or that you need to revisit that site and you can't find it again. If you have it on your works cited, it makes it a lot easier for you to retrace your steps and find the information you need.