Lesson 4

• Texts with citations appear more credible as it's backed with professionals' findings
• Evaluating sources


  • Necessary to ensure the credibility of a source
• Why do we need to evaluate sources?

  To find the best information to support your ideas
• Reasons to evaluate sources

  • Risk - may cause confusion
  • Validity
  • Credibility - if by professionals
• Criteria in evaluating sources

  • Relevance to the Topic - How well does the source support your topic?
  • Author's Qualifications - is the author's background related to the topic?
  • Date of Publication - When is the work published. It should be five years earlier at most.
  • Accuracy of Information - how is the author's tone and style of writing? The writing must be formal with no sense of bias or prejudice.
  • Location of Sources - Where is the source published?
• Relevance to the Topic


  Check the title and headers of the text, look at the table of contents, summary/abstract, and introduction
• Author's Qualifications


  If the source does not have an author, think twice before using it
• Date of Publication


  The work should be published within the last five years
• Accuracy of Information


  The writing must be formal with no sense of bias or prejudice, avoid using contractions
• Location of Sources


  Avoid using blogs or Wiki sites, it must have complete public information, academic domains have .edu, .gov, .net, and .org
• Why do we cite?

  To give credit to the author of the original work, to promote scholarly writing done in institutions, to help your target audience to identify your original source
• Two types of citations

  • Reference - bibliographic entries of all references, appears in the reference list
  • In-text - used in a certain part of their essay, Parenthetical: Is simply labeled as a source, Narrative: The citation is part of the idea that of which you expound on
• The American Psychological Association (APA) introduced the 7th edition of the publication manual, replacing the 6th edition published in 2009


  October 2019
• APA: 'APA provides a foundation for effective scholarly communication because it helps authors represent their ideas in a clear, concise, and organized manner'
• APA Style Guidelines


  • Use clear, concise language, avoid contractions and colloquialisms
  • Use "I" in place of editorial "we"
  • On-human relative pronouns like "that" and "which" are recommended for animals and inanimate objects rather than "Who"
  • Numerals under 10 should be spelled out; 10 and above expressed as a number
  • Do not use gendered pronouns as a generic pronouns, use "they" instead
  • Use descriptive phrases instead of adjectives as nouns
  • Past tense verbs should be used to refer to events that occurred in the past
  • Avoid biased language
  • Use exact ranges and categories
• DOI


  Exact link of the file
• URL


  If uploaded on a website, may change
• Citation format


  Author - year - journal - title - article number - page
• National Institute of Mental Health. (2023, April). Anxiety disorder. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders