With this list, students can then look for sources either online or at a public or university library. Public and university library searches are great for locating academic references like textbooks, professional journals, and other reference materials. However, with the development of online databases students don’t have to do a physical search in most cases, as they can just use a university sponsored, or premium online library to conduct their research.

When conducting research online, students should make sure that their sources are reputable. Personal websites really should be avoided, as information provided on these kinds of sites are not as reliable as professional websites. Personal website, while not a good reference source, are great places to find leads to keywords and other reputable sources. Students should look at the end of the personal websites for a bibliography or references cited lists. They can then use these lists to locate reputable sources of information for their essay.

If a student utilizes an online database or library they will need to make sure that they document where they found their sources. This can be done by either printing out their source pages or by taking notes. If the student takes notes instead of printing out the pages they will want to get the following information for every internet source that they use: author, date of the material, web page title, title of article, organization or publication title, date material was retrieved, and the website address associated with the source. While notes may provide students and professors with all of the information that is needed to located these sites again, I would highly recommend printing out their sources as they are found, as website updates or site maintenance may prevent the student’s professor from accessing these sources during their check for source authenticity. Also by printing out the source pages, students have the exact website address printed at the bottom of their sheets, and this helps to prevent mistakes when documenting web addresses in their bibliography or works cited page. For easy access, I also recommend that print outs of online resources be organized and kept neatly in a folder.