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1. Session 1: Research your topic using library resources
Keywords are the most important words from your question.
To help you search, you can use synonyms for your key words. Synonyms ( ‫ِف‬‫د‬‫را‬ُ‫م‬ ) are words that
mean the same thing (big = huge = large)
You can find synonyms in a thesaurus. A thesaurus is special kind of book, like a dictionary, but instead
of definitions, it has synonyms.
Boolean operators = and but or
cats AND dogs
search results will contain only items with both keywords listed, cats AND dogs.
items containing only one of the two keywords will not be listed
cats OR dogs
search results will contain all items with ANY of the keywords listed, Cats, Dogs, Cats and Dogs
together.
cats NOT dogs
search results will contain only items with the first keyword (cats) listed, but NOT the second
(dogs).
items containing both keywords will not be listed.
Session 2: Overview of Information Sources
Examples of Print Sources Electronic sources of information
• Newspapers
• Books
• Encyclopedia ‫وسوعة‬َ‫م‬
• Dictionary
• Print Journals
• the Internet
• eBooks
• Academic Databases
• Online Journals
Academic sources are also known as scholarly sources!
Scholarly sources are not the same as popular sources. We prefer scholarly / academic sources for
research because the information is higher quality and more reliable.
scholarly sources popular sources
• journals
• encyclopedias
• academic databases
• magazines
• newspapers
• social media

2. Session 3: Evaluation of Resources
Domain Names tell us what the sources is and, often, where it is located. For example, dewa.gov.ae tells
us that DEWA is a government (.gov) organization located in the UAE (.ae). Here are some common
domain names:
o .com = commercial (or blogsite)
o .co = commercial
o .org = organization
o .gov = government
o .edu = education
o .ac = academic education
o .net = network
Use the CRAAP test to think about the quality of your information:
Currency: is your information new and current: something published in 2023 is better than something
published in 1998.
Relevance: does the information match your task and audience? Is it connected to what you are
researching?
Authority: quality of the source; is it a journal or a Twitter tweet? Is the source a scientist or a
teenager?
Accuracy: is it true? You can check this by what you know about the topic, or if you can verify (َ‫د‬َّ‫ك‬َ‫أ‬َ‫ت‬) the
information somewhere else.
Purpose: is there bias (‫انحياز‬) in the information? WHY did the author write this?
Session 4: Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is submitting someone else’s work as your own. Examples include copying text from the
internet or changing a few words and then submitting it, or submitting something that another student
submitted for a different class.
HCT is very serious about plagiarism. There are 4 levels which depend on how serious it is. A student
may be dismissed from the college at the highest level.
It’s important to cite your sources. You use an intext citation in your paragraph to show where you got
that particular piece of information.

3. o An indirect citation is a paraphrase: you used someone else’s info, but you put it into your own
words. Schleifer’s (2015) study OR (Schleifer, 2015)
o A quotation is a direct citation: you copy someone else’s words, but you use quotation marks
“ “ to show that: Show, 2015, p.49
What information do I need to reference?
o statistics
o images, including charts and diagrams
o direct quotes
o text that you copy and paste
o someone else’s ideas
We don’t cite common knowledge, or your own ideas or opinions.
o Dates are an important crop in the UAE.
o There’s a train between London and Paris.
How do we cite? In HCT, we use a style called American Psychological Association, or APA. There are
other styles, also.
APA has styles for in text citations and references. The HCT Library has citation tools (click on the “).
Microsoft Word also has built in citation tools.
End of text references come at the end of your research report and give full information about the
sources. They are listed alphabetically by author’s name and each type of source has its own style.
Note: online or electronic sources will always have a URL; print sources will not.
Examples:
Print Book:
Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend. Yale University Press.
Print Journal:
Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.
Online Journal:
Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital research with
service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement, 6(1), 11–
16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979
However, many studies show that video games can have a negative impact on college students’ grades. A
gamer who spends more than 6 hours a day playing video games is considered an expert, but he/she can
also expected to have poorer academic performance. Another more recent study compared novice and
expert players among college students in terms of their academic performance. The results showed that
"the expert players scored 27% less in their final exams than the novice players" (Show, 2015, p. 49). An
additional finding of interest in Schleifer’s (2015) study is that male students were reported to play more
than female students, and they also had lower grades.

4. Print Newspaper:
Harlan, C. (2013, April 2). North Korea vows to restart shuttered nuclear reactor that can make bomb-
grade plutonium. The Washington Post, A1, A4.
Print Report:
WHO. (2003). Diet, Nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases. (World Health Organization
Technical Report 916). Geneva: WHO.
Your end of text references will look like this: