From a question to a plan

Word	What it means
Source	Where information comes from: a book, a website, an article, a video, an interview.
Useful	Answers your question, at a level you can use. Also called relevant.
Current	Up to date enough for your question. How recent it must be depends on the question.
Reliable	Trustworthy: made by someone who knows the subject, with no reason to mislead, and checkable against other sources.
Bias	Leaning toward one side, often because the source gains something.
Point-form notes	Short notes of key words and phrases, not full sentences.
Paraphrase	Someone else's idea in your own words and your own sentence.
Quotation	Someone's exact words, in quotation marks, with credit.
Plagiarism	Passing off someone else's words or ideas as your own, even by accident.
Comparison	Setting two things side by side to show how they are alike and different.
Chronology	Time order: what happened first, next and last. Also called chronological order.
Cause and effect	What made something happen, and what happened because of it.
Signal words	Words that show the reader how ideas connect: unlike, then, because, as a result.

The question: how should hikers in Alberta's mountain parks protect themselves from bears?

Source	Useful?	Current?	Reliable?
A parks agency's bear-safety page, updated this year	Yes	Yes	Yes: staff who deal with bears, and nothing to sell
A library book on grizzly biology from 1998	Partly: bears, not safety	No: advice changes	Yes, for what it covers
A hiker's blog post from last month about meeting a grizzly	Partly: one story	Yes	Weak: one experience, no expertise
A company page selling bear spray	Partly	Yes	Biased: it gains if you are afraid
A news story about a bear seen near Canmore last week	No: a sighting, not what to do	Yes	Yes, for what it reports

Only the parks page passes all three. The blog is current and on topic but is one person's experience. The book is reliable but old, and answers a different question. The news story is reliable and current and still no use, because it does not answer the question. That is why the tests are kept separate.

How current depends on the question. For What was life like at Fort Edmonton in the 1800s?, a book from 1998 can be excellent. For safety advice, technology or the law, check the date first.

Say a science centre's page on the northern lights tells you:

The northern lights appear when charged particles from the sun, carried by the solar wind, collide with gases high in Earth's atmosphere. Earth's magnetic field steers most of these particles toward the poles, which is why the lights are seen most often in the far north and the far south. The colour depends on the gas: oxygen usually glows green, while nitrogen can add purple and blue.

northern lights = particles from sun hit gases high up (science centre)
magnetic field → particles to poles → seen most far N and far S (science centre)
colour = which gas: oxygen green; nitrogen purple, blue (science centre)

• Over-quoted: two whole sentences from the page, in quotation marks, with credit. Not plagiarism, but it shows you can copy, not that you understood.
• Word-swapped: The polar lights show up when electrified bits from the sun, borne by the solar breeze, crash into gases high in our atmosphere. The source's sentence with new words dropped in. Still plagiarism, even with credit.
• Paraphrased and credited: According to a science centre's page, the northern lights are what we see when particles thrown off by the sun crash into gases in the upper atmosphere. Earth's magnetic field pulls those particles toward the poles, so the lights are most common near the top and bottom of the world. New sentences, the same facts, the source named.

Quote only when the exact words matter — a striking phrase, or words you are about to analyze — and keep it short. Credit every idea you borrowed, paraphrased or quoted: name the source in your sentence, and list it at the end in the format your teacher asks for.

The question: why do some Alberta lakes turn green in late summer? It asks why, so the notes go into a chain:

1. Cause: rain washes fertilizer and manure off fields and lawns into the lake, carrying phosphorus.
2. Effect, then cause: blue-green algae, which are really a kind of bacteria, feed on the phosphorus.
3. Effect, then cause: in warm, calm, sunny weather they multiply into a bloom that turns the water green.
4. Effects: some blooms make toxins, so health advisories warn people and pets to stay out; and when a bloom dies, its rotting uses up oxygen, and fish can die.

When rain washes fertilizer off fields and lawns, it carries phosphorus into the lake. Blue-green algae feed on it, so in a warm, calm stretch of late summer they multiply into a bloom. As a result, the water turns green, and because some blooms make toxins, health advisories warn people and pets to stay out.

The same topic, other questions. How has the lake changed since 1980? wants chronology, with in 1980, by the 2000s, now. How are two lakes alike and different? wants a comparison, usually clearest point by point — runoff for both lakes, then depth for both — so the reader compares as they go.

• Choosing a source because it is reliable when it does not answer your question.
• Ignoring the date on information that changes.
• Swapping words in someone's sentence and calling it a paraphrase.
• Quoting whole sentences where your own words would show you understood.
• Forgetting to credit a paraphrase.
• Using time order to answer a why question.