Bieberography

Let Justin show you how to cite your information sources and create a bibliography…

Now that you’re in middle school, your teachers might start asking you to cite the information sources you’ve used to complete projects and papers.

Your teacher may also want you to make an alphabetical list of all your citations called a bibliography or “works cited” page.

Here’s what a single citation looks like:

Baron, Matt. “Is Justin Bieber Hotter than the Surface of the Sun?” Time. March 5, 2011, pp. 26-29.

I bet you can’t break down all the parts of the citation and guess what they are…

Put a bunch of citations together alphabetically on a single page and you’ve got a bibliography.

Here’s what a bibliography looks like…

I’m dressed up ‘cause citing sources is very formal. You have to do everything just so, and it’s all about style.

When you’re required to cite sources, your teacher will let you know what style or format to use.

Some of the styles you might run into during your education are:

•APA•MLA•Chicago•Turabian

Here at Highlander Way, we have our own unique style.

It’s basic and flexible and it’s not unlike all those other styles you may be asked to use in high school and college, except that it’s simpler.

It’s called the Highlander Way Bibliography Format.

The reason I said citations are very formal is because they have to be written, formatted and punctuated in a precise way.

Luckily, if you’re using the Highlander Way Bibliography Format, there’s a worksheet to help you keep track of your information sources and create proper citations for them.

Take a good look at it…

Understand how to use the worksheet to cite your sources?

Let’s dive right in and practice, then. We’ll do some citations together and we’ll call for a volunteer to come up front and be the leader.

Remember: everyone should fill out their worksheet as we practice.

I’ve chosen to research Matthew Henson.

Just over a century ago, he was among the first team of explorers to reach the North Pole.

The first information I used in my project came from this

Let’s CITE the SOURCE!

Title Page

Back of title page.

The next thing I did was go to the database called SIRS Discoverer.

I searched Matthew Henson and then clicked on the magazines tab.

I used the article above, called Arctic Adventurer.

Let’s Cite it!

Here’s the top of the article I used…can you cite it correctly?

Remember: National Geographic Explorer is a MAGAZINE. That means you cite it as a PERIODICAL article.

SIRS Discoverer is a database, meaning an online digital library. Just because the database is on the web doesn’t make the information sources it contains websites.

Databases can contain newspapers, magazines, reference sources, books, and lots more, so be careful. Let’s cite something else I found in Sirs Discoverer…

I went back to SIRS Discoverer and this time I clicked on the REFERENCE tab. There was a simple biographical article (An overview of his life and adventures) at the top of the list.

Can you CITE it?

Here’s the top portion of the article…

Excellent work! Let’s cite one more source, if we have time.

Here’s the deal: Last night, I used my favorite search engine to see if I could find out a bit more about Matthew Henson.

The 3rd site listed in the search was pretty good.

Can you CITE it?

Top of siteVery bottom corner of site

I think you’ve got it!