ELA Research Skills 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student wants to find peer-reviewed articles about climate change. Which database is MOST appropriate?
- Google Images
- JSTOR or PubMed (Correct answer)
- Wikipedia
- Reddit forums
Correct answer: JSTOR or PubMed
JSTOR and PubMed are academic databases that index peer-reviewed, scholarly articles.
Question 2: Which of the following is an example of a PRIMARY source?
- A textbook chapter summarizing World War II
- A documentary about the Civil Rights Movement
- A diary entry written by a soldier during the Vietnam War (Correct answer)
- An encyclopedia article about ancient Rome
Correct answer: A diary entry written by a soldier during the Vietnam War
A diary written during an event is a primary source because it is a firsthand, original account.
Question 3: When paraphrasing a source in a research paper, a student MUST:
- Copy the text word-for-word with quotation marks
- Still cite the original source (Correct answer)
- Only use information from one source
- Avoid using any of the original ideas
Correct answer: Still cite the original source
Even when paraphrasing, you must cite the original source to give credit and avoid plagiarism.
Question 4: A student finds a website ending in .gov. What can they generally conclude?
- It is a commercial site trying to sell products
- It is maintained by a US government agency and is likely reliable (Correct answer)
- It contains only personal opinions
- It is not citable in academic work
Correct answer: It is maintained by a US government agency and is likely reliable
.gov domains are reserved for official US government agencies, making them generally credible sources.
Question 5: Which Boolean operator would NARROW a search to results containing both 'solar energy' AND 'cost'?
- OR
- NOT
- AND (Correct answer)
- NEAR
Correct answer: AND
The AND operator requires both terms to appear in results, narrowing the search.
Question 6: What does the 'C' in the CRAAP test for evaluating sources stand for?
- Content
- Currency (Correct answer)
- Citation
- Context
Correct answer: Currency
In the CRAAP test, 'C' stands for Currency, meaning how recent or up-to-date the source is.
Question 7: A student uses three sentences directly from an article without quotation marks or citation. This is called:
- Summarizing
- Paraphrasing
- Plagiarism (Correct answer)
- Synthesizing
Correct answer: Plagiarism
Using another author's exact words without attribution is plagiarism, an academic integrity violation.
ELA Research Skills 2
A student wants to find peer-reviewed articles about climate change.
Which database is MOST appropriate?