ECED: Evaluation, Citations & Writing

This guide helps Early Childhood Education students start the research process

Cite Your Sources

Citations can feel a bit tedious sometimes but it is important to cite the sources you use in your research. Not to worry, there are resources to help you...

APA: American Psychological Association [6th edition]

OWL Purdue APA Formatting and Style Guide - online with several examples of in-text citations and reference list entries
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association - check out a copy from the General Collection (library 3rd floor), call number: BF76.7.P83 2010
Citation Machine - an automated citation generator for creating your citations in APA.
Basics of APA Style Tutorial - from the APA (includes audio)
APA Citations: Tutorial
APA Citations: Video

You can also view the Citing Sources guide to review citation basics and style guides.

Why Are Citations Important?

Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, web site). Citations are usually found in bibliographies and reference lists.

It's important to cite your sources so that you:

Give credit to authors of the original source
Allow your reader to track down the sources you used
Show you've done proper research by listing sources you used to support your paper

What to Cite:

Facts, figures, statistics, or other information that is not common knowledge
Ideas, opinions, or theories other than your own
Quotes – another person’s spoken or written words
Paraphrases of another person’s spoken or written words

When in doubt, cite your source!

Writing Help

Academic Writing
Using a metaphor of a party, this video explains the writing process in an academic setting.
Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Quoting
Discusses three ways of presenting research in your writing or presentation.
Writing Help
Presents some tips and guidelines to make your writing strong and interesting to read.
Incorporating Sources into your writing
A no-nonsense website with some great examples of signal phrases and constructing sentences using sources.
Academic Writing Help
A comprehensive site outlining different writing assignments and styles. (from Empire State College)

Evaluating Your Sources

Are your sources crappy or not? Evaluate your sources using this CRAAP test.

The CRAAP Test
Click above to view a CRAAP Test evaluation sheet.

Currency: -- When was the information created?; -- Does your topic require updated information?; Relevance; -- Does the information relate to your paper/project?; -- Is it written at an appropriate level? (not too advanced or elementary)
Authority: -- Is the author qualified to write on this subject?; -- Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?; Accuracy; -- Where does the information come from?; -- Is the information supported by legitimate sources?; Purpose; -- Why was the site created (advertising, share knowledge, entertainment)?; -- Do the authors make their intentions clear?