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PHT - Photography (Carr-Alexandria)

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Annemarie Anderson
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Email: aanderson@nvcc.edu

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Newspaper, Magazine, and Journal Articles

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Search Tips

Select the most important 2-3 terms related to your topic.  Put the word AND between each new term; this tells the database to look for resources with ALL your terms.

education AND history

Use quotation marks ( "  " ) around phrases (two or more words); this tells the database to look for the words in that specific order.

"standardized testing" AND students

Use an asterisk (*) to find multiple endings of one word.  Using educat* as a search term will include results that refer to educate, educated, educators, education, educational, and educating.

educat* 

Use OR for synonyms and related terms. When searching online, it is a good idea to put OR statements in parenthesis. 

(college OR university)

Use Google's built in search trick site: too look for information from a specific domain or a specific website.  Check out more Google search tips and tricks here.

site:.gov

site:npr.org

Evaluating Online Sources

SIFT

Stop

Ask yourself whether you know and trust the website or source of the information.  If you don't, use the other moves in SIFT to get a sense of what you're looking at.  Don't read or share the article or website until you know what it is.

Also, remember to stop if you find yourself getting carried away in any of the moves in SIFT.  Remind yourself why your purpose and object is and refocus.

Investigate the Source

Know what you are reading before you read it.  Look into who the author/organization is.  Look outside of the original source's website.  What can you find out about them by doing a Google search?  What does Wikipedia say about the person or organization? Does the author or organization have a specific agenda?

Find Trusted Coverage

Look for trusted sources that discuss the topic to see if the information is being presented accurately or if it is even being covered in other places at all.  Do a Google search on the topic or main claim of the article look for information from reliable, trusted sources.  Look for articles from trusted new source or fact checking website.  Use reverse image searching to find source for images.

Tip: When searching for images to find trusted coverage or look for original context, use the Google Chrome browser.  Google Chrome has a built in Google image search function.  Right click on the image you want to search and you will see "Search Google for Image" in the menu that appears.

Trace Claims, Quotes and Media to the Original Context

Trace claims, quotes, and media (videos and images) back to the source in so you can see the information in the original context and get a better idea if the source you found is accurately presenting the information.  Look to see where the information came from.  Does the article mention where they got the information?  If so, go to the source and look at it.  Continue until you find the original source.

https://www.notion.so/Introducing-SIFT-04db7879dd7a4efaa76bfb2397d11ffd