Citation Basics

Review the list and image below, which both outline how the in-text citation in your essay connects to the larger reference page of your work. 

(click on image to enlarge)

(click on image to enlarge)

1. Place in-text citations in the body of the paper to acknowledge the source of your information.  This is meant to be a shortened version of the full citation that appears on the final page of your paper.
2. Place full citations for all your sources on the last page entitled References or Works Cited (different citation styles require different titles).  Full citations are meant to provide readers with enough information so that they can locate the source themselves.
3. APA or MLA are citation styles.  Each has different guidelines for how source information (author, title, year...etc.) should be formatted and punctuated for both in-text citations and for the References or Works Cited pages

Consult a guide for the specific citation style you are using:

How can you determine if you have a "good" information source? 
Assess the following:

AUTHORITY and ACCURACY

•    Who publishes the website?  Is this a well-know or respected institution?
•    Is there contact information for authors of the website content?  What is their background or credentials?
•    Is it a commercial site (.com), a government site (.gov), an educational site (.edu), a non-profit or other organization (.org)? How does this affect the information presented?
•    Do other reliable sites link to this one?
•    Are facts, ideas or references credible and backed up by citations to the original sources?

PURPOSE and OBJECTIVITY

•    What is the purpose of this site: to sell, inform, entertain or persuade?
•    Who sponsors this website?  What is their agenda or goal?
•    For what audience is this site written?
•    Is there advertising on the site? Does this influence information found on the site?
•    Are arguments well-reasoned and supported?

CURRENCY

•    Is the information on the page up-to-date?
•    Is the page updated regularly?
•    Are there dead links?

RELEVANCE

•    What is the source's thesis? (According to the author, __________________.)
•    How does the thesis develop, support, or refute your topic? (I learned ___________ about my topic as a result of reading this source.)
•    Does this source present explicit bias? If so, how does this source's perspective develop your topic?

SIFT Evaluation Tool

Use the technique of Lateral Reading to Validate Claims and Sources

(click on image to enlarge)

This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution license.

Step 1: Stop

Ask yourself whether you know and trust the author, publisher, publication, or website.

• If you don’t, use the other fact-checking moves that follow, to get a better sense of what you’re looking at.
• In other words, don’t read, share, or use the source in your research until you know what it is, and you can verify it is reliable.

Step 2: Investigate the Source

When investigating a source, fact-checkers read “laterally” across many websites, rather than digging deep (reading “vertically”) into the one source they are evaluating.

• Leave that source and see what others have said about the source.
• Piece together different bits of information from across the web to get a better picture of the source you’re investigating.

Step 3: If needed, find better or more appropriate coverage.

What if the source you find is low-quality, or you can’t determine if it is reliable or not?

• You want to know if it is true or false. You want to know if it represents a consensus viewpoint, or if it is the subject of much disagreement.
• Your best strategy in this case might actually be to find a better source altogether, to look for other coverage that includes trusted reporting or analysis on that same claim. 

Step 4: Track the source back to the original.

What if you feel uncertain about the "full story" of a fact or claim, or you suspect someone might want to mislead you (as when controversial issues are presented)?

• Trace the claim, quote, or media back to the source, so you can see it in its original context and get a sense of whether the version you saw was accurately presented.

Modified from Mike Caulfield's SIFT (Four Moves), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Graphic created by Suzanne Sannwald based on Mike Caulfield's work on SIFT. Creative Commons Attribution License.