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Our Earth, Our Species, Ourselves: Ajgaonkar & Morgan

Gather Context: Getting Stated with Reference Sources

One of the best ways to get started is to gain a more accurate sense of information through reference sources.  Try the two links below to start to learn more about your topic:

Add More Depth: Popular & Scholarly Sources

Once you've gathered basic info about your problem, begin to dig deeper by incorporating other sources of information, including popular and scholarly articles.  Try looking in the following places for more information:

Having some trouble remembering the difference between popular sources and scholarly, as well as how to read scholarly articles?  Check the links below for help:

Evaluate Websites

While you're doing Google searches to either narrow your topic or in order to dig up more information on certain subject, you want to be careful to decide if the information you find is trustworthy.

When it comes to science, nearly everyone has opinions: should we be labeling genetically modified food for consumer's awareness? What will fracking do for our economy or our groundwater supply? Your job is to evaluate the information you can find through Google and Bing to find the good websites--those written by authors you can trust, with good and up-to-date information.

Authorship: Who created this website? What is their background on the topic? Are they trustworthy?

Bias: Why was the website created? What point of view does the author have? Does that limit the facts they present or how the facts are presented?

Date: How old is the information that is presented? Is it still accurate?

Questions? Check out the COD Library's guide to evaluating information.

 

Looking for a specific type of resource, such as data, statistics, or government reports? Try some of the following strategies in your Google search:

  • Adding site:.gov  to your Google searches will get you government results for your topic
  • Adding site:.edu to your Google searches will get you educational results for your topic (and many universities have good info about sustainability as well.)

Cite

Want some more concrete help with citations? Try the following: 

Want software to create citations for you? Check out the database below:

  • URL: https://library.cod.edu/biolo1110/earth
  • Last Updated: Sep 9, 2024 1:04 PM
  • Print Page
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