In your persuasive research essay you must:

• include a minimum of six (6) resources to support your argument
  • four (4) must be scholarly and found using MRU library resources
  • two (2) are supplementary sources that do not need to be scholarly
• cite these resources using MLA style guidelines

Always consult your assignment worksheet for full requirements and other details, and don't forget your Research Question Activity shared document for your class.

How do you know if you have a credible, reliable, relevant source? Consider the following:

1. Is the author qualified to write about the topic?
2. Does the resource incorporate quality reports or research?
3. Is the language used objective, or emotional?
4. Is the information opinion-based, or can you identify some bias?
5. Does the resource actually address your research topic or problem?
6. Who is the intended audience?
7. Is the information recent, or does it speak to the time period of your research?

Your resource doesn't necessarily have to meet all of these criteria.

The following video has more information about ways to understand and evaluate the credibility of sources.

There are all kinds of information resources available. When you find a source, two key questions you should always ask yourself:

1. Is it a quality, credible source?
2. Does it meet your information needs?

Many of your instructors will ask you to use academic sources in your assignments. This usually means peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly books/chapters, or other credible resources that rely on dedicated research.

Non-scholarly sources are great for when you need background or supplementary information to give some context, such when discussing current events, or understanding how your topic is discussed in the real world, outside of academia/research settings.

Phrase searching: Use "quotation marks" around key ideas made up of multiple words.

• "food insecurity"
• "foreign trained nurses"

Truncation: Use an asterisk * to find different endings to your keywords

• employ* = employ, employee, employer, employed, employment
• surveil* = surveil, surveilance, surveilled

Synonyms: Using different keywords to describe the same idea will retrieve results that use any of those terms. Note that synonyms are most effective in brackets with the word OR between them.

• (privacy OR confidentiality OR security)
• (energy OR oil OR gas) industry

These advanced Google search options canl help you find useful, credible information on the open web.

Use site: to look for resources from trustworthy web domains.

• site:gc.ca and site:canada.ca = both for Canadian gov't
• site:ab.ca and site:alberta.ca = both for Alberta gov't
• site:gov = US gov't
• site:edu = US universities
• site:ac.uk = UK universities
• site:edu.au = Australian universities

Other options

• allintitle:social media privacy teens = words after allintitle: must appear in the title of the page (example)
• allintext:social media privacy undergraduates = words after allintext: must appear in the page text (example)