Assignment writing is undoubtedly a tedious task requiring much patience, understanding of the subjects, and good researching skills. Mostly, students struggle with the assignment writing tasks, and there are several reasons behind it.
Finding credible and reliable sources of information on the internet is undoubtedly one of those reasons. Because of lack of knowledge, students fail to find the resources that can be cited and used for collecting information for assignment writing. Other than that, information overload has become a serious issue. One can find thousands of resources on the internet, but it isn't easy to verify if the information is legit or not.
No matter what kind of assignment one makes, finding the right sources and accordingly writing information is important. Especially when it comes to research paper writing, thesis writing, or dissertation writing, it is necessary to cite credible resources.
In this article, we have made the task easier for the students struggling with their assignments. We have mentioned valuable tips that will surely improve the research skills and help find credible resources for assignment writing. So, if you are also a student struggling with assignment writing, this article is undoubtedly for you.
Dump Wikipedia
Wikipedia is not at all a credible source of information. Do not ever make the mistake of writing data from it. Though Wikipedia is an excellent pool of information, students should always avoid it because anyone on the internet can change the information on Wikipedia.
Therefore, it is not at all a good option for your research sources. In fact, you should not even consider reading Wikipedia.
Sometimes "vandals" edit the information maliciously on Wikipedia. Though reviewers quickly edit it most of the time, it can remain there for a long period of time. Also, students should always avoid sources whose authors are unknown. Therefore, Wikipedia is a big no when it comes to finding resources for your assignment writing.
Find news websites and magazines
If you find any information from news websites, then you can consider using it for your assignment. However, here also, you should be careful because news organizations and magazines are also biased sometimes. If you want to add information about current events, then you can surely consider news organizations.
Also, the thorough full-fledged reports with detailed information are a great source. However, one should avoid the Op-ed and editorial pages. These pages are the voice of the newspaper. They reflect the opinion of the newspapers that can be biased. Therefore, you need to be careful about the information you use from the news websites.
Listen to your professors' suggestions
Your professors can give you the best advice with regards to the resources for your information. The primary reason is that they are the ones who check your assignments. Sometimes, the sources you feel are trustworthy are useless for your professors. So, it is better to get their suggestions and work accordingly.
Ask them what resources do they suggest for completing their assignments. Your professors may have access to some paid journals and research papers. This can help you get access to the information you won't get easily on the internet.
Search smart
Sometimes, the topics are so complex that you do not find much content on the internet. Therefore, in such scenarios, you should change the way you search.
However, it would be best if you always start the way you usually search. Use established search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Gather the information you find interesting and trustworthy.
After that, move to specific terms. Look for the keywords in your assignment topics and then search them. Do not overlook the list of related searches. Sometimes, they give you better ideas and also credible resources that can be really beneficial.
Go for the quoted search to be more specific about the terms. Add quotation marks or inverted commas to the keywords and search. Other than that, you can use search engine tools and adjust the search results according to a specific time period. With this, you can see the results of the last 24 hours, last week, last month, last year. You can also customize the time period of which you want to see the results.
Cite properly
When you write information from some trusted websites, you may miss citing them. Also, you may copy and then paste the content from a particular website and then forget to mention the source. You may paraphrase it later, but you should not underestimate your professors. They are much experienced and can easily find the plagiarised content. Therefore, you should be careful and never forget to cite the sources.
Also, the format for citing differs depending upon the type of sources. Have a look at this video:
The CRAP test for website evaluation
Don't worry! The test is not crap, but it is just an easy acronym to remember. This is just a method to find if the information written on the website is credible or not.
This is the full form of CRAP
C- Currency
R- Reliability
A- Authority
P- Purpose
Currency refers to the recency of the information. Sometimes, you have to make an assignment where you require information of a particular time period only. It would help if you looked for the date in the article.
Sometimes, the date is mentioned in the URL (domain) of the article. Also, check how recently a website has been updated. If they have not been functional for long, then this should not be your choice for the resources.
As the meaning of the word suggests, Reliability refers to the accuracy of the content. Sometimes, the author writes their own opinion in the article. Be careful about it. Also, check if the author provides the links or references to the information reported.
Authority refers to the credibility of the website. See if you are familiar with the website. See if the title of the website matches the URL. Also, check what does the web address ends with. The ones ending with (DOT)gov and (DOT)edu are always good to go.
Purpose represents "Why does the website exist?" Check if there are multiple advertisements on the website. Check if the author's prime focus is to sell something. These factors help you determine if the website is credible or not.
Here's a video for detailed information about "CRAP"
