Welcome to the Mildred H. McEvoy Library

Will this website W.O.W. my teacher? (Yes, I made this up.) Use these factors if you want more than the "Lateral Reading" technique in the video above:

1.  W. = Why? Ask Why Did This Person or Organization Use Time and Money to Put the Page Online? To Sell? To Inform? To Persuade?

• Be sure you can tell if the information is fact, opinion, or propaganda!
• Look for evidence of bias in the information (point of view, or use of emotion-rousing words)
• Is a website free of advertising? If there is advertising, is it clearly separated from the information?
• Who is friends with the site; who links to the page or domain?  Use [link:URL] in Google (e.g. link:worcesteracademy.org)

2.  O. = Owner? Who Wrote the Information (What are her/his qualifications for writing on this topic-- why should you believe them?), and who paying for it to be online?

• Can you find more information about the people responsible (is there an email or street address)? Look for "About Us," or "Who We Are,' or something similar on a website. 
• Google the author or search for her in the Biography in Context database -- does the author: Hold a degree in the subject? Work in a related field? Have first-hand knowledge?
• To find a website's homepage, delete everything after the first ".org," ".edu," etc. in the address.  
• Search for a nonprofit organization in CharityNavigator.

3.  W. = When?

• Sometimes it matters that information is recent. Sometimes it doesn't, depending on what you're researching. Some information is outdated quickly, like medical information or news. On a website, can you tell when a page was written or updated, or are there dead links? Is a book a first edition, or has it been revised or updated?

Finally, Use Your Common Sense, What You Already Know, and a Healthy Dose of Skepticism!
Here are a few tools to help:

• Evaluating Web Pages: Tutorial from UC Berkeley

  This tutorial will give you questions to ask of your sources to help you quickly find what you need to know about web pages, and train your mind to think critically, even suspiciously, to help you decide how much a web page is to be trusted.

Wikis : Many wikis are full of excellent information, but because it has not been expertly reviewed or curated, you may not cite it for academic work at Worcester Academy or in college (if you want a good grade). However, wikis can be a good place to start to get background information, to gather search terms or to check out the "References" at the end of a page. Other than Wikipedia, try these wikis:

     Citizendium

     Europeana

Plagiarism is a form of theft. It is the use of another person's work or ideas without giving proper acknowledgment to that person. For further information, please refer to the Worcester Academy Student-Family Handbook. These guidelines are provided to help you avoid accidental plagiarism. 

To avoid plagiarizing, you need to give credit whenever you use: 

• another person's ideas, opinions, or theories; 
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings, etc. that are not "common knowledge"; 
• quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words; and 
• paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words.

Direct Quotation
If you are copying a person's words or speech, you are directly quoting. When you quote, put the person's words or speech in quotation marks, and cite the source.

Paraphrase
If you are putting another person's writing or speaking into your own words, you are paraphrasing. Although you are using your own words, the opinions, the information, the ideas, and even the organization of ideas are not yours. You need to cite the source. 

A Good Strategy to Avoid Plagiarism:

1. Take good notes that are fully in your own words.
2. Look at your notes when writing, not your original sources.
3. Cite when necessary. If you're not sure, CITE IT!

More on PARAPHRASE ... Consider this comparison:

Here is the ORIGINAL TEXT (from A Smaller History of Rome by William Smith and Eugene Lawrence): 

Italy has been in all ages renowned for its beauty and fertility. The lofty ranges of the Apennines, and the seas which bathe its shores on both sides, contribute at once to temper and vary its climate, so as to adapt it for the productions alike of the temperate and the warmest parts of Europe. In the plains on either side of the Apennines corn is produced in abundance; olives flourish on the southern slopes of the mountains; and the vine is cultivated in every part of the peninsula, the vineyards of northern Campania being the most celebrated.

Here is an UNACCEPTABLE paraphrase that is plagiarism: 

Italy has always been celebrated for its loveliness and its bounty. The soaring Apennines, and the oceans that surround the country, both moderate and vary its climate, so that the people can grow the same crops that are grown in both the temperate and the warmest parts of Europe. Below the Apennines, corn flourishes; on the southern slopes of the mountains olives grow in plenty; and grape vines are grown all over Italy. The oldest vineyards can be found in northern Campania. 

This passage is considered plagiarism because: 

• the writer has only changed around a few words and phrases; and 
• the writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts. 

If you do either OR both of these things, you are plagiarizing.

One way to avoid doing this accidentally is to read the original passage and then write down what you remember without looking at the source. What you write is likely to be an acceptable paraphrase, and you still need to cite it.

Here is an ACCEPTABLE paraphrase: 

Italy is not only beautiful; the variability of its climate and its geography make it particularly favorable for the growing of certain crops. Italians are particularly successful in growing olives and corn, and grapes to be used for wine (Smith & Lawrence 23). 

This is an acceptable paraphrase because the writer: 

• accurately relays the information in the original; 
• uses her own words; and 
• lets her reader know the source of her information. 

Here is an example of quotation & paraphrase used together, which is also ACCEPTABLE:

Italy is not only beautiful; the variability of its climate and its geography make it particularly favorable for the growing of certain crops. The mountains, oceans and plains "temper and vary its climate, so as to adapt it for the productions alike of the temperate and the warmest parts of Europe." Italians are particularly successful in growing olives and corn, and grapes to be used for wine. Although vineyards can be found all over the country, those of northern Campania are "the most celebrated in antiquity." (Smith & Lawrence 23). 

This is an acceptable paraphrase because the writer: 

• accurately relays the information in the original; 
• uses her own words; 
• records the information in the original passage accurately; 
• indicates which part is taken directly from her source by putting the passage in quotation marks; and 
• lets her reader know the source of her information. 

 IF IN DOUBT, CITE IT!

Articles can be found everywhere. The word "article" just means a piece of writing on a particular subject. So, there are newspaper articles, magazine articles, journal articles, and books that are made up of articles such as anthologies and many reference books. There is a difference, however, between the type of information you will find in articles. What is appropriate for you depends on what you want to use the information for.