Evaluating & Citing Sources

E.S.C.A.P.E. METHOD OF EVALUATING RESOURCES

E - Evidence

Do the facts hold up? Look for information you can verify--names, stats, places, quotes, etc.

S - Source

Who made this and can you trust them? Trace who touched the story--authors, publishers, sponsors, funders, social media users, etc.

C - Context

What's the big picture? Consider if this is the whole story and weigh other forces surrounding it--current events, cultural trends, political goals, financial pressures

A - Audience

Who is the intended audience? Look for attempts to appeal to specific groups or types of people--image choices, presentation techniques, language, content

P - Purpose

Why was this made? Look for clues to the motivation--the publisher's mission, persuasive language or images, moneymaking tactics, stated or unstated agendas, calls to action

E - Execution

How is this information presented? Consider how the way it's made affects the impact--style, grammar, tone, image choices, placement and layout

Sun Prairie West High School LMC: Citing Sources

Why does it matter to site your sources?

Document your research: Citing your sources helps your teacher understand how much work you did in your research, which things you read (and cited) and which ideas are your own.

Ethics: When you cite your sources, you give credit to the work of others who helped you develop your ideas. Not citing your sources is called plagiarism and is a serious offense that can negatively affect your grade. There are many tools available to teachers that can help them easily identify plagiarism, so take the time to cite your sources. It's worth it!

Scholarly Discourse: Scholars carefully cite their sources to give credit to other researchers so that the source can be easily located by others.

Citation Tools

Citation Guide

A works cited list uses the same bibliographic format, but it only includes the sources you actually cited or quoted in your work.

A bibliography is a list of information sources laid out in alphabetical order. This list contains all of the sources you used to write your paper or create your presentation, including books you read but didn't directly quote or cite in your project. There are two formats used for building your bibliography : MLA and APA.

Here's an example of APA format:

Here's an example of MLA format:

An annotated bibliography can be in either MLA or APA format. Annotated bibliographies contain a description and evaluation of the source after the citation.

How to Cite Sources Using APA and MLA Formats

Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide
Guidelines and tools for citing sources with an MLA format.
Purdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide
Guidelines and tools for citing sources using the APA format.

MLA/APA Format Comparison

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