Discovery and Attribution
Imagine you are sitting around with a group of friends and someone says, "Hey, did any of y'all catch the Texas basketball game last night?"
Someone says, "I think Notre Dame killed them."
"No, I thought Texas came back and took the Irish in overtime," someone else argues.
If this discussion happened back in the 1980s, you would have had to call someone or buy a newspaper to find out the score. But in today's world, research is only as far away as your pocket. In no time flat, you can grab a smart phone and know exactly how the game went down.
By second grade, most students can conduct an effective keyword search. By high school, most students' search skills are fairly solid.
What students may not be as familiar with is crediting the source of those game scores. No one is going to sit in her living room and say, "According to CNN, the score was 45 to 32 at the beginning of the final quarter, but the Longhorns tied it up at 58. In overtime, Texas managed to pull off the win with a single free throw." However, when you are writing an essay, this kind of citing (or attributing credit) is critical.
Let's look at how you will add attribution to your impressive research skills as you delve into a topic you always wanted to know more about.
