K-12 Resources

Information for teachers and students learning to become teachers.

Library Research Guide

Cite Sources

There are many citation resources out there on the internet and in print. The following are highly recommended and commonly used by K-State students.

APA Guide - Purdue
A very helpful guide to APA citation, it includes information on formatting in-text citations, your bibliography, and even gives you sample papers.
MLA Guide - Purdue
Almost identical to Purdue's APA guide except that it covers MLA citation.
Citation Builder
This tool helps you quickly create citations for your bibliography.

There are also free citation managers out there that can help you manage citations throughout a project and beyond. We like Zotero.

Zotero
A free citation management software program where you can save citations directly from your browser, organize them, and create a bibliography.

Domains

In general, websites are hosted in domains that tell you what type of site it is.

.com = commercial
.net = network provider
.org = organization
.edu = education
.mil = military
.gov = U.S. government

Commercial sites want to persuade you to buy something, and organizations may want to persuade you to see an issue from a particular viewpoint.

Useful information can be found on all kinds of sites, but you must consider carefully whether the source is useful for your purpose and for your audience.

Evaluate Sources With the Big 5 Criteria

The Big 5 Criteria can help you evaluate your sources for credibility:

Currency: Check the publication date and determine whether it is sufficiently current for your topic.
Coverage (relevance): Consider whether the source is relevant to your research and whether it covers the topic adequately for you needs.
Authority: Discover the credentials of the authors of the source and determine their level of expertise and knowledge about the subject.
Accuracy: Consider whether the source presents accurate information and whether can verify that information.
Objectivity (purpose):Think about the author's purpose in creating the source and consider how that affects its usefulness to your research.

Evaluate Websites

Evaluating websites follows the same process as for other sources, but finding the information you need to make an assessment can be more challenging with websites. The following guidelines can help you decide if a website is a good choice for a source for your paper.

Currency: A useful site is updated regularly and lets visitors know when content was published on the site. Can you tell when the site was last updated? Can you see when the content you need was added? Does the site show signs of not being maintained (broken links, out-of-date information, etc.)?
Relevance: Think about the target audience for the site. Is it appropriate for you or your paper's audience?
Authority: Look for an About Us link or something similar to learn about the site's creator. The more you know about the credentials and mission of a site's creators, as well as their sources of information, the better idea you will have about the site's quality.
Accuracy: Does the site present references or links to the sources of information it presents? Can you locate these sources so that you can read and interpret the information yourself?
Purpose: Consider the reason why the site was created. Can you detect any bias? Does the site use emotional language? Is the site trying to persuade you about something?