Ninth Grade · Reading · week 35

Research Skills: Sources, Citation, and Synthesis

Evaluate a source's credibility using authority, currency, accuracy, and purpose, and integrate a quotation into an argument using a signal phrase and basic MLA in-text citation.

Not all sources deserve equal trust, and a strong researcher evaluates before citing. Four questions help: authority (who wrote this, and what makes them qualified?), currency (how recent is it, and does that matter for this subject?), accuracy (can its specific claims be verified against other credible sources?), and purpose (is the source trying to inform fairly, or persuade, sell, or provoke, and does that purpose shape what it includes or leaves out?).

Once a credible source is chosen, it has to be integrated honestly. Paraphrasing is restating an idea in your own words and sentence structure, not simply swapping a few words in the original sentence -- swapping words while keeping the original structure is still a form of plagiarism, even if unintentional. A direct quotation should be introduced with a signal phrase naming the source or author, and followed by a basic MLA in-text citation, typically the author's last name and a page number in parentheses. Every quotation or paraphrased idea taken from a source needs both a signal phrase and a citation -- the reader should never have to guess where an idea came from.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Practice the four-question evaluation together on a real source your student wants to use -- walking through authority, currency, accuracy, and purpose out loud makes the habit concrete.
  • Have your student attempt a paraphrase, then compare it word-by-word against the original to check whether the sentence structure genuinely changed, not just a few words.
  • Word study/grammar in context: model the exact punctuation of a signal-phrase quotation, comma before the opening quotation mark, parenthetical citation after the closing quotation mark and before the final period, since this exact mechanic is graded closely in most classes.
  • Emphasize that citing sources generously is a sign of strength, not weakness -- it shows the writer has done real research, not that the ideas are not their own.
Talk about it:
  • Why might purpose matter as much as accuracy when evaluating a source?
  • What is the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarizing with extra steps?
  • Why do you think researchers are expected to cite even paraphrased ideas, not just direct quotations?

Mastery looks like: They can evaluate a source using all four credibility questions and correctly integrate a quotation with a signal phrase and MLA in-text citation.

Common stumbles: Treating a close paraphrase, same structure, different words, as sufficiently original; quoting or paraphrasing an idea without a citation because it was not a word-for-word quote.

See it visually

Interactive, spoken-aloud tools that show this idea in motion.

Essay & Thesis PlannerShape a thesis and outline an intro, body, and conclusion.try →Punctuation PowerThe same words as a statement, a question, or a shout — hear it change.try →Persuasive AppealsBuild an argument with ethos, pathos, and logos.try →
Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
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