Credible research

Touchstone 1.1: Find Credible Research

Overview

What You Will Learn: In this Touchstone, you will use the critical thinking skills that you learned in this unit by finding a credible source. You will practice those skills by determining why the source you chose should be considered credible evidence and then reflecting on your process. The goal of this Touchstone is to help you get comfortable with locating and evaluating research.

Why It Matters: Learning how to find credible sources and evaluate information is one of the most valuable skills you can develop. Whether you’re making a case at work, deciding how to vote, or researching a big personal decision, being able to spot reliable information and understand different perspectives gives you the power to think clearly and make informed choices.

What You Will Hand In: A 12-page paper that describes your research process, reflects on your experience as a researcher, and includes a reference page with an APA-formatted citation for the credible source you found.

Keys to Success:

• Use research strategies that demonstrate critical thinking.
• Choose a source that is credible, trustworthy, and reliable.
• Answer the reflection questions.
• Develop and submit your own original work. While AI tools can be helpful for brainstorming or organizing ideas, this assignment is meant to strengthen your own skills in research, reading, and critical thinking. Using AI to write your reflection or find and summarize sources takes away your opportunity to grow in these areas and can also lead to plagiarism flags. To stay within academic guidelines and get the most from this assignment, be sure all of your writing and analysis is your own.

Helpful Links:

Instructions

Step 1: Select and Evaluate One Credible Source

Review the tutorial for more help on how to find a topic. Locate one credible source that provides reliable, relevant information about your topic. Choose either:

• A scholarly source such as a peer-reviewed journal article, a book published by a university press, or research from a reputable organization.
• A credible popular source such as a feature article from a major newspaper, a report from a respected magazine, or a publication by a professional organization.

Consider what kind of source fits best for the early stage of your research. You’ll need to use the same topic for Touchstones 1.1 and 1.2, but you can change your topic for your final paper.

Step 2: Write a Reflection (150250 words)

Your reflection should include 3-4 paragraphs:

• Topic Selection: How or why did you select this topic to research?
• Research Process & Decision Making: What search terms did you use? What platform did you use to find the article or source? Why did you select the article you did? What is the journal or other source where the article was published? How did you determine that this source is credible?
• Critical Thinking: What made this source stand out as credible or useful? How did reading this source challenge or reinforce what you already believed? What is one thing from the source you didnt fully understand at first, and how did you clarify it?
• Personal Learning & Application: What goals do you want to achieve in your writing and research? What did you learn from this experience about your own research habits? How has this process changed the way you think about finding credible information? What is one skill you used or developed in this assignment that you can apply in other courses or at work?

Step 3: Create an APA Citation for Your Reference

• Create an APA-formatted reference for the article you read.

Step 4: Submit Your Source, Reflection, and Citation

• Review the rubric to confirm that you have met all the requirements of the touchstone. Once you are happy with it, you can submit it as a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file. Your submission must include your name, the name of the course, the date, and the title of your assignment.