Writing for Success by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Some online health information is reliable. Always include source information so you know exactly which ideas came from which sources. 5. Some of this information may be true, but too often some of it is not. Stay actively engageddo not simply accept an authors words as truth. If you are not sure how you should begin your search, or if it is yielding too many or too few results, you are not alone. Read and trust reliable sources like the CDC and other reputable sources. Use multiple keywords and Boolean operators to limit your results. Its mission is to provide the public with accurate and timely news and information about Earths changing climate, along with current data and visualizations, presented from the unique perspective of NASA, the But the cost of poor data is pretty much evident. Like catalogs, they provide publication information about an article and often allow users to access a summary or even the full text of the article. It will also help you make connections between your notes and the research questions and subtopics you identified earlier. Writers evaluate a sources reliability by asking questions about the type of source (including its audience and purpose); the authors credibility, the publications reputability, the sources currency, and the overall quality of the writing, research, logic, and design in the source. When you search for periodicals, be sure to distinguish among different types. Paraphrase ideas carefully, and check your paraphrased notes against the original text to make sure that you have restated the authors ideas accurately in your own words. With Author(s), title and subtitle, publisher, city of publication, year of publication. Fact is, the ROI of any data quality initiative is elusive. Read the dust jacket and table of contents for a broad overview of the topics covered. reliable data. Trade magazines that target readers within a particular industry may presume the reader has background knowledge, but these publications are still reader-friendly for a broader audience. To get the most out of a search engine, however, use strategies to make your search more efficient. The different types of sources you will consult are written for distinct purposes and with different audiences in mind. With a sinking feeling, you realize that finding this information and preparing your bibliography will require hours of work. Here people cite three specific factors as most important: That ads not interfere with the news (63 percent); that the site or app loads fast (63 percent); and that the content works well on mobile phones (60 percent). You can always come back to it later if you need to. Are websites organized, easy to navigate, and free of clutter like flashing ads and unnecessary sound effects? Limit results to a particular domain type, such as .edu (school and university sites) or .gov (government sites). Good information is essential for effective operation and decision making at all levels in businesses. Use the following checklist to help ensure the health information you are reading online can be trusted. https:// The National Institutes of Health website is a good place to start for reliable health information. If a site ends in .gov, it is most likely a reliable government website. Is the website written by a medical or scientific professional or does it reference one of the trustworthy sources mentioned above for its health information? How to Find Reliable Health Information about Covid-19. An official website of the United States government. For instance, an author may have an advanced degree in physiology, but this credential is not a valid qualification for writing about psychology. Use your good judgment when gathering health information online. Guy Berger, director of freedom of expression and media development at UNESCO, told VOA the project is a response to the challenges to media viability linked to the way that the digital ecosystem has developed and, more urgently, by the COVID-19 pandemics impact on local economies.. Paraphrasing as you take notes is usually a better strategy than copying direct quotations, because it forces you to think through the information in your source and understand it well enough to restate it. As you read this section, you will learn ways to locate sources efficiently, so you have enough time to read the sources, take notes, and think about how to use the information. Limit results to scholarly works available online. As you read, begin gathering print and electronic resources, identify at least eight to ten sources by the time you finish the chapter, and begin taking notes on your research findings. FILE - Members of the media listen as Peter Feldmann, mayor of the city of Frankfurt, speaks during his visit to a vaccination center as the coronavirus outbreak continues in Frankfurt, Germany, Dec. 17, 2020. Writers evaluate sources based on how relevant they are to the research question and how reliable their content is. That criteria are as follows: The internet is scattered with biased, misleading, and altogether incorrect information and that is why it is important to follow the above criteria. Media literacy supports this by emphasizing active, Social media websites and apps are online communities through which people can connect with friends, family, and strangers. These sources are published at regular intervalsdaily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The IMS findings showed both good and bad trends for the media, including an increase in audiences and demand for fact-checked information, but also attempts to To ensure the quality and reliability of your research. Sign up to receive updates and resources delivered to your inbox. n. accurate data. Ask yourself which sources are most likely to provide the information that will answer your research questions. When writing a research paper, preparing a speech, or doing another project that relies on information from outside sources, it is necessary to ensure the information is valid. Synthesizing will help you later when you begin planning and drafting your paper. A charitable organization may use information from research in materials sent to potential donors. Having accurate and timely information is critical to the decision-making process. You may also wish to assign each source a code number to use when taking notes (1, 2, 3, or a similar system). If not, plan to visit our library within the next few days to locate the articles you need. ), Table 11.5 Details for Commonly Used Source Types shows the specific details you should record for commonly used source types. 888-232-6348 (TTY)cdcinfo@cdc.govwww.cdc.gov, MedlinePlus The importance of using reliable sources truly boils down to effective communication. If your knowledge is based on unreliable information you will not be a trustworthy asset to your company. Credible communication is key in business success and that is why you should not just grab any information off the internet. Credibility is especially important to business professionals because using unreliable data can cause internal and external stakeholders to question your decisions and rely solely on their own opinions rather than factual data. If the index you are using provides article summaries, read these to determine how useful the articles are likely to be. The creators of these publications assume that most of their readers are already familiar with the main topic of the journal. There are websites on nearly every health topic, and many have no rules for overseeing the quality of the information provided. Longevity and Reputation. Never use them as final sources. You can reach all federal websites by visiting www.usa.gov. Also be wary of sites suggesting simple or unproven treatments for a disease. Print out or bookmark your search results. Many sites publish this information on the homepage, and some, such as news sites, are updated daily or weekly. That doesnt mean you should avoid them. Focus on finding and recording details that will help you answer your research questions. It is usually at the bottom of the page or on a separate page titled Privacy Policy or Our Policies. If a website says it uses cookies, your information may not be private. The site is secure. Identify at least three to five articles to review more closely. Use quotation marks to set off any words for phrases taken directly from the original text. Discuss what you find with your doctor before making any changes to your health care. Evaluate your search results critically based on the criteria you have learned. In contrast, only 1 in 3 say it is very important that digital sources allow people to comment on news. Your notes will fall under three categoriessummary notes, paraphrased information, and direct quotations from your sources. Websites and blogs - can be reliable or unreliable, hoaxes or sincere misinformation. Unfortunately, despite its apparent convenience, this research strategy has the following drawbacks to consider: A general web search can provide a helpful overview of a topic and may pull up genuinely useful resources. They are often written primarily to attract a large readership or present the authors opinions and are not subject to careful review. UNESCO will partner with a working group under the Forum on Information & Democracy an international entity founded by several independent organizations. Common sense will help you identify obviously questionable sources, such as tabloids that feature tales of alien abductions, or personal websites with glaring typos. (For more information on APA and MLA formatting, see Chapter 13 APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting. Remember that you do not need to write down every detail from your reading. Chapter 2: Writing Basics: What Makes a Good Sentence? Because knowledgeable professionals carefully review the content before publication, scholarly journals are far more reliable than much of the information available in popular media. This section will discuss strategies for evaluating sources critically so that you can be a media-savvy researcher. (If so, it is possible that your sources are presenting similar information but taking different perspectives, which requires you to think carefully about which sources you find more convincing and why. Dont count on any one website and check your sources. Now is a good time to get a little ruthless. Taking time to organize source information now will ensure that you are not scrambling to find it at the last minute. Evaluating health information in books is similar to finding reliable information on websites or on social media. Keep in mind that expertise in one field is no guarantee of expertise in another, unrelated area. You do not remember the URLs for some of the websites you used or the dates you accessed theminformation that also must be included in your bibliography. Webfor improving response capacity. Include at least one primary source. Health care professionals might consult databases such as MedLine to research a particular disease or medication. WebAs there is so much information available and because such information can be published quickly and easily by anybody and at any time, it is important that you are vigilant in choosing reliable sources. Those with less formal education are also more likely to support it: Around two-thirds of those with a high school diploma or less (68%) favor the death penalty, compared with 63% of those with some college education, 49% of those with a bachelors degree and 44% of those with a postgraduate degree. It depends on the size of the company, whether it operates in an information-intensive industry like banking or insurance, and the extent of the problem. From the moment a student approaches Stevenson University Online, they receive one-on-one guidance and support. How much does a data quality program cost? Instead, they rely on a community of users to police themselves. With the information, the company's strategies have a firm foundation WebIn general, print publications with authors and listed sources tend to be reliable because they provide sources which readers can verify. With so many print and electronic media readily available, it is easy to overlook another valuable information resource: other people. Skim through subheadings and text features such as sidebars. Likewise, Web postings with a .gov suffix Scholarly or academic journals are written for a much smaller and more expert audience. You may even have identified a few potential sources. As you begin typing your list, you realize you need to include the publication information for a book you cited frequently. Before you begin taking notes, take a moment to step back and think about your goal as a researcherto find information that will help you answer your research question. Make sure your notes include the following elements: Throughout the process of taking notes, be scrupulous about making sure you have correctly attributed each idea to its source. To find print resources efficiently, first identify the major concepts and terms you will use to conduct your searchthat is, your keywords. We've been very conscious of the importance of fully understanding how COVID-19 has affected, in various different ways, the reality of our partners: media platforms, mainstream and new online media platforms, but also freedom of expression and press freedom organizations, Hjberg told VOA. Read quickly with your research questions and subtopics in mind. Jorge read these studies with a critical eye, knowing that a hidden agenda might be shaping the researchers conclusions. Many university librarians hold virtual office hours and are available for online chatting. Is the source of the authors information clear? Strengthen your credentials and earn a degree in under two years at the graduate level with a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate. Learn more about Stevensons commitment to student success. Find out why your number is needed, how it will be used, and what will happen if you do not share this information. Reliable information can be depended upon to represent the conditions and events that it is intended to represent.. Regardless of the format used, any notes you take should include enough information to help you organize ideas and locate them instantly in the original text if you need to review them. How can I protect my health information? In short, it helps you stay engaged with the material instead of simply copying and pasting. They usually appear among the first few results of a web search. He also noticed that many studies were sponsored by a foundation associated with the author of a popular series of low-carbohydrate diet books. As some emergency measures started to be used to restrict the media earlier this year, the IMS, which supports local media in countries affected by conflict or insecurity, reached out to its partners for insights on what they were facing. If you are using articles from scholarly journals, you can check databases that keep count of how many times each article has been cited in other articles. based on strong evidence. Widely credible sources include: Other sources like websites and blog posts can be reliable but require further evaluation. Questions in other subjects: English, 15.09.2021 16:20. Key The information environment will improve In the next 10 years, on balance, the information environment will be IMPROVED by changes that reduce the spread of lies and other misinformation online. All courses are online, allowing you to continue working while pursuing your degree. Questions to ask before trusting a website, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, learn how to evaluate health information online, Learn about how to safely use public Wi-Fi networks, Participating in Activities You Enjoy As You Age, Getting Your Affairs in Order Checklist: Documents to Prepare for the Future, Hospitalization for infection linked to higher dementia risk, Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Doctor's Visit. Is the website secure? Sometimes, however, a sources reliabilityor lack of itis not so obvious. Unfortunately, these sites have no control system for researching, writing, and reviewing articles. They can be used to measure/record a wide range of business activities - both internal and external. Why was the site created? The importance of using reliable sources truly boils down to effective communication. Does the source include any factual errors or instances of faulty logic? Sources can vary greatly in terms of how carefully they are researched, written, edited, and reviewed for accuracy. 240-453-8280odphpinfo@hhs.govhttps://health.gov/. The constant chirping of your smoke detector alerts you to change its batteries. Make sure quoted material is copied verbatim. In some cases, reference books may not be checked out of a library. Is the website owner or sponsor a federal agency, medical school, hospital, or large professional or nonprofit organization, or is it related to one of these? Longevity and reputation are important factors that contribute to the reliability of books as a source of knowledge. Reading blogs and online discussion groups is a great way to identify new trends and hot topics in a particular field, but these sources should not be used for substantial research. These operators allow you to combine keywords, find variations on a word, and otherwise expand or limit your results. To help you improve on these skills make sure you start taking your responsibilities seriously and work on your communication skills. Few sources present facts completely objectively. If you are asked to share personal information, be sure to find out how the information will be used. Written information that Are you looking to expand your communication skill set? Be suspicious, however, of any source that presents facts that you cannot confirm elsewhere. They cover protective measures, such as masking and distancing, and their effects on kids, age-based tips for parents working from home during the pandemic, multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), keeping kids safe at school, and preparing children for COVID-19 vaccination. For example, if a business pays for the site, the health information may favor that business and its products. They are researched and written by subject matter experts and are carefully reviewed. If the material is not authored by an expert, has the information been reviewed by a health care professional or other credentialed specialist? Table 11.2 Commonly Used Indexes and Databases. Use its online tutorial to learn how to evaluate health information online. Secure websites that collect personal information responsibly have an s after http in the start of their website addresses (https://) and often require that you create a username and password. If your knowledge is based on unreliable information you will not be a trustworthy asset to your company. (Be on the lookout for extreme, emotionally charged language.). When a dependable person says that theyll do something, makes a claim, or commits to a course of action, its happening. Now more than ever we need news we can trust, Jesper Hjberg, executive director of the Denmark-based nonprofit International Media Support (IMS), said in a video aired as part of the panel. There are several ways to go about it, and no one system is necessarily superior. One of our XQ Learner Outcomes is to help students become original thinkers: people who can make sense of conflicting knowledge, create ideas despite ambiguous and new situations, and critically analyze from different perspectives. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Is the type of source appropriate for my purpose? While cookies may enhance your web experience, they can also compromise your online privacy, so it is important to read about the information the website collects and how the organization will use it. Reliable Sources. If you believe an older adult in your life has been the target of a scam, contact the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 8333728311. In a health crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, quality information is necessary to keep the population calm and informed on the correct steps to take. Newspapers, magazines, and academic journals are examples. Without reliable sources of information, the company is guessing about its strategic course. It is easy for writers to get so caught up in checking out books and printing out articles that they forget to ask themselves how they will use these resources in their research. A single library may provide access to multiple periodical databases. n. Government publications include reports, legislation, court documents, public records, statistics, studies, guides, programs, and forms. Reliable sources of information will have a few things in common. Knowing the right keywords can sometimes make all the difference in conducting a successful search. If you follow certain periodicals or websites, you have probably identified publications that consistently provide reliable information. If you are writing a research paper about reality television shows, you will need to use some reality shows as a primary source, but secondary sources, such as a reviewers critique, are also important. Is your privacy protected? Sources used may include print sources, such as books and journals; electronic sources, such as websites and articles retrieved from databases; and human sources of information, such as interviews. A website that is maintained by a well-known, respected organization and regularly updated is more reputable than one created by an unknown author or group. Once you know the trick to identifying reliable information, you can quickly determine if what youre reading is accurate or not. Is the writing clear and organized, and is it free from errors, clichs, and empty buzzwords? If you omit words from a quotation, use ellipses to show the omission and make sure the omission does not change the authors meaning. Knowing who pays for a website may provide you with insight into the mission or goal of the site. If you are writing about the health effects of nicotine, you will probably want to read the published results of scientific studies, but secondary sources, such as magazine articles discussing the outcome of a recent study, may also be helpful. In both cases, the author would likely have a hidden agenda. Apps may also collect data about you as you use them. Several other initiatives are working on the same issue so it made sense to cooperate, Berger said. Depending on the specific search engine you use, the following options may be available: Use the Bookmarks or Favorites feature of your web browser to save and organize sites that look promising. WebCredible sources are critical for research papers because their findings are based on evidence and reliable information. The pandemic has underscored the importance of ensuring the survival of local media. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Just as important as the authors credibility is the publications overall reputability. Can I establish that the author is credible and the publication is reputable? One reason is that older people are less likely to report suspected fraud. If you have trouble finding sources on a topic, consult a librarian to see whether you need to modify your search terms. While a journal article may advance an agenda or advocate a position, the content will still be presented in an objective style and formal tone. In researching a paper about the First Amendment, you might read articles about legal cases that involved First Amendment rights, or editorials expressing commentary on the First Amendment. You can locate these materials in the catalog using a keyword search. The target audience is also highly educated. Support for the media industry, which has experienced job losses and closures during the pandemic, is part of the focus of a separate project by UNESCO and World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). But how can you tell whether a source is reliable? You may use pen-and-paper methods, such as a notebook or note cards, or maintain an electronic list. Do the authors conclusions logically follow from the evidence that is presented? These sources should be avoided. Contact your subject early in the research process and explain your purpose for requesting an interview. ), Table 11.5 Details for Commonly Used Source Types. 1. Typing a keyword or phrase into a search engine instantly pulls up links to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of related websiteswhat could be easier? Find out here. Personal stories may be helpful and comforting, but not everyone experiences health problems the same way. MedlinePlus.gov is a website from the NIH National Library of Medicine that has dependable consumer health information on more than 1,000 health-related topics. What makes a source reliable? What career experience or academic study shows that the author has the expertise to write about this topic? You probably know lots of people who give half-hearted promises. At this point in your research process, you may have identified dozens of potential sources. NIA scientists and other experts review this content to ensure it is accurate and up to date. For instance, an article about the role of beef in a healthy diet would be questionable if it were written by a representative of the beef industryor by the president of an animal-rights organization. These sources would be considered secondary sources because they are one step removed from the primary source of information. Often, the date the information was created and reviewed or updated will appear at the bottom of the page. Based on what I know about the author, are there likely to be any hidden agendas? That's why it's important to evaluate health information for yourself. To weed through your stack of books and articles, skim their contents. Chapter 11: Writing from Research: What Will I Learn? Is the source contradicted by information found in other sources? Your research proposal included some general ideas for how to go about your researchfor instance, interviewing an expert in the field or analyzing the content of popular magazines. Identifies and illustrates the different kinds of information by the complex internal and external communication links of a typical R&D department. You dont want to make decisions about your care based on out-of-date content. The challenge here is to conduct your search efficiently. If you are concerned about the potential use of information gathered by cookies, you can choose to disable the use of cookies through your internet browser settings. You will consider criteria such as the type of source, its intended purpose and audience, the authors (or authors) qualifications, the publications reputation, any indications of bias or hidden agendas, how current the source is, and the overall quality of the writing, thinking, and design. Ask questions to determine each sources value. For additional information on citing different sources, see Chapter 13 APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting. When you chose a paper topic and determined your research questions, you conducted preliminary research to stimulate your thinking. The .gov means its official. Their purpose is to inform and, often, to entertain or persuade readers as well.
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what are the importance of getting reliable information