Evaluating Sources

Evaluating Sources

Type of assignment:Essay

Academic level:University Level, Bachelor’s

Referencing style:APA

Number of sources:3

Subject:Environmental Studies

Client country:United States (US English)

Assignment extract:

Please help me finish this assignment 7, the introduction I will provide to you, this assignment is about two part, one is fill the worksheet, and second part is two-paragraph summary write-up, please help me finish it

Finding and Evaluating Information Resources
Locate the following three references:
• A Baltimore Sun newspaper article that discusses BPA in school lunches. • An article in Nature, written by J. Wade Harper that discusses dioxins in waste. • A blog article on the Smithsonian website on how urban environments are impacting birds.
You may already be well-versed in researching papers and sources, but if you need some help with this,
the two resources that will probably be the most useful are Google Scholar and/or Summons on the TU
library website. To get to the library website, go to: http://library.temple.edu. On the home page, you will
see “Summon: easily discover library content”. In the box below, you can type in key words, such as
“Nature Harper dioxins” to find the appropriate article. Please keep in mind that if you want to type in a
set of words, such as New York Times, you have to put quotation marks around it (“New York Times”) or
it will search for all of the terms separately. Similarly, you can do a search on Google Scholar http://
scholar.google.com/. If you are accessing it from a University computer, it will automatically give you a
link on the far right side that says, “Find Full-Text @ TU”. Click that to access the article via the TU
Library. If you are on a home computer, it is best to search directly via Summon, as the university has
subscriptions to the articles you are looking for. The blog can best be found using a traditional web
search.
What to turn in:
1. The full APA citation and URL for ALL 3 references above, using the APA style. A citation guide
with information on APA citation style may be found at the following link: http://www.temple.edu/
writingctr/support-for-writers/documents/APAGuideColor.pdf
2. The completed “Reference Evaluation Worksheet” (last page of this document) for ONE of the three
references you found above (pick one).
3. A short, two-paragraph summary write-up for the same reference you chose for #2 above. The first
paragraph should briefly summarize the information presented in the reference you are evaluating. The
second paragraph should answer these questions: “Would you use this reference in a research paper?
Why or why not?”(This second paragraph should include an organized summary of the thoughts you
will have already recorded in note form on the worksheet.) This must be typed; handwritten
summaries will not be accepted.
A few tips for the reference evaluation worksheet:
• The author and publisher/host of a website may be the same. For example, if you don’t see an author’s
name on a museum page, then the museum is both the author and the publisher.
• You may not find all of your answers on the specific reference or web page assigned. Be prepared to
examine other linked pages (look for an “about” link, for example) or search the web for more
information about the person or organization that authored the material.
• In some cases, an answer may truly be “There is no way to determine it.” However, make sure you
search your page, linked pages and the web in general before saying this. If you claim this for
information that is, in fact, available, we will count your answer as incomplete.
• Weigh all four criteria when you are considering whether to use your assigned reference in a research
paper. For example, the information may appear accurate, but if the authority is suspect or the site is
very out-of-date you may want to find a more authoritative or current site for your information.