RSU Writing Center Tip: Evaluating Web Sources

Source

Sources of information that you find through the University's Library catalog and databases are a bit easier to judge than sources that you find out there on the web at large. This is because the sources students and faculty can access through the catalog and databases are presented in a standardized manner, and you can find information about the author, article title, journal title, date of publication, etc. in pretty much the same place in every record.

So, what are the best practices for evaluating those sources of information you find out there on the web? Click here to view tips and read a quick demonstration web site evaluation from The Bedford Research Room.

After evaluating a source and finding it fit to use, you may need help citing it in your paper. Click here for help with MLA citation, and click here for help with APA citation.

Good luck on your search,

Sara

Reflection on Editing Wikipedia for the First Time

I began by creating an account, which was very easy. They asked for a user name, password, and captcha verification that I was not a robot. After that, I thought about what articles I might want to review. What do I know about? First, I looked at the RSU page. It is pretty well looked-after, as you might expect. Then I looked up the Anna Sewell page, since I recently did a project on her and know quite a bit about her life. Her page is in pretty good shape, but I noticed they listed a cause of death and I know her biographers debate what she actually died of. The cause of death was uncited. I googled the causes and found one source that matched; suspiciously, the wording was EXACTLY the same as the Wiki entry… someone was copying someone… at the bottom of the second page there was a note saying the content came straight from Wikipedia. So a dead end there.

I noticed there are Article/Talk tabs on the left side of the page for each entry and Read/Edit/New Section/View History tabs on the right side. You can switch between views to see what’s going on what I’d call “on-stage” or “backstage” for each entry. “Edit” is where it gets complicated—in terms of code and content! “History” shows the history of all edits, who made them, when they were made, etc.

I pulled Sewell’s most recent biography from my shelf and checked to see if the cause of death listed on the Wiki page was there… Found it! The Wiki writers were correct, the cause of death they listed was Sewell’s official cause of death, according to doctors of her time; however, today it’s speculated that Sewell’s death may really have been caused by complications from the SLE form of Lupus. I’m not sure if I’m ready to go into all that and also Wiki policy advices writers stay away from speculation. So, I just decided to add a citation to the cause of death. Sewell’s most recent bio wasn’t mentioned in the entry’s references at all, and it really should be there, anyway.

So, actually adding the reference took a bit of time, but it was fairly easy to add after clicking Help and finding the code to copy-and-paste. Basically, on the Edit page, I changed

Sewell died on 25 April 1878 of [[hepatitis]] or [[Tuberculosis|phthisis]], five months after her book was published, living long enough to see its initial success.

to

Sewell died on 25 April 1878 of [[hepatitis]] or [[Tuberculosis|phthisis]]<ref name="test">''Dark Horse: The Life of Anna Sewell'' by Adrienne E. Gavin. p. 165. Sutton Publishing (2004). ISBN 0-7509-2838-7.</ref>, five months after her book was published, living long enough to see its initial success.

Image of Article History, including my most recent change

Image of Article as it now reads to viewers after my addition

And that’s it! My first contribution.

~Sara

Thinking about the Process

Timelapse Writing of a Research Paper

Last time I wrote, I blogged about being in process. You should know three things about the writing process if you don't already:

1. The writing process occurs in stages. 

Those stages include all the things you do in preparation to write, all the things you do as you write the lines/sentences, and all the things you do after you've written to tidy up and polish the work.

Earlier Stages                               Middle-ish Stages               Later Stages
Prewriting                                      Drafting                                 Revising/moving sections
Free writing                                   Filling out the outline               Proofreading
Outlining                                       Integrating evidence                Editing
Researching topic/audience            Peer review                            Fact-checking
Peer review                                                                                 Peer review

2. The writing process is not linear, which is to say that it doesn't happen one separate activity at a time. 

It's more cyclical, more messy.

For example, sometimes while I'm attempting to fill out my rough outline, I realize I need to do more research, so I return to that stage. Or, sometimes as I'm integrating evidence, I'll realize that my argument is just not working and needs to be tweaked, so I turn to free writing, prewriting, or outlining again to help me re-organize or re-think my argument.

3. Everyone's process is different. 

Every single writer's process is different. From the tasks that they find most helpful and rely on, to the environment and media they prefer to write in, to the order that they perform the tasks in, to their back-up plan if the regular process does not work--

every. writer's. writing. process. is. different.

Here's what good writers do: every good writer thinks about his/her writing process and makes an effort to figure out what works best. Good writers experiment with different writing activities.

Good writers aren't always the people with the natural talent for writing--more often, they are the people who think about their habits, who are conscious about what works and what doesn't.

Looking back at that last blog entry, I notice that my particular writing process is heavy up front. I spend most of my composing time gathering information and cycling between outlining and researching, as well as prewriting my thesis and topic sentences. I have to do these tasks together to do them efficiently. (This is me thinking about my writing habits.)

Happy writing,
Sara