Credible Sources a Key to College Success

Credible sources a key to college success College life can be pretty stressful and complicate it at times. There are several things that can help college life become easier and more manageable. One of the main things and if not the most important it will be the ability to identify and separate credible online sources from non-credible ones. It is very true that technology has help make college life easier, with search engines such as Google or Bing at just one click away of distance.

The only problem is that with so many choices to pick from how to tell if a source is even worth to look at without having to expend a great amount of time looking at each one through. Even though non-credible sources are easier to find, credible sources are more reliable because they are usually written by experts and have more substantial information in them.

If we take a credible source like “Rising prevalence of cohabitation in United States may have partially offset decline in marriage rates” from the Family Planning Perspectives and compared against a non-credible sources like “Cohabitation in the United States” from Wikipedia, we can see that the article from the credible source has the components that help sort out a credible source from a non-credible. The article “Rising prevalence of cohabitation in United States may have partially offset decline in marriage rates” from the Family Planning Perspectives has the main things that you should look in a credible source.

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First of all I found the article in the CINAHL with Full Text database from the library most popular database list. I made sure I used the Boolean word Cohabitation in USA and I limit the results to only show full text and peer-review articles. The article is written in a very professional manner, also even though the article was written 1990; it has fairly recent review date of 2009. The information that the author explains is supported by numbers and statistics that help support her information.

Some subgroups, such as cohabiting couples, single-parent families, stepfamilies, newlyweds, blacks and Hipics, were oversampled. Interview questions emphasized cohabitation and the links between cohabitation and marriage. The final sample consisted of 6,881 married couples and 682 cohabiting couples; of these, 5,648 spouses and 519 cohabiting partners completed questionnaires (Vol. 22, Issue 2). In general most articles found in the library database re reliable, the only thing that is good to look for is if there is any biases in the article or reasons why the author may become bias, in the case of the author of this article Rebecca Turner is graduated it from the Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Essex, UK, which in this case helps to her credibility as an author. On the other hand the article that I found in Wikipedia “Cohabitation in the United States” is not considered a reliable source.

The main reason for this is because is a Wiki and also because I found the article in Google’s search engine. Wiki’s in general can be a good way to start a research but they should not be used as a primary source to support an essay, wikis are open source which means that anyone can attempt to make changes or alter the information that is portrayed there, which mean one article can contain information from many different people that have never met each other. Also some of the information does not sound very professional and lack citations.

It should be noted this model cites antecedent apprehension concerning commitment as the cause of increased break-ups and cohabitation only as an indicator of such apprehension. Another explanation is that those who choose not to cohabit prior to marriage are often more conservative in their religious views and may hold more traditional views on gender roles, a mindset that might prevent them from divorcing for religious reasons or confronting crisis in relationships despite experiencing marital problems no less severe than those encountered by former cohabitants. citation needed] The fact that a citation is needed in that paragraph should be enough evidence to prove that wiki’s in general are not credible sources of information. In order for college life to be successful, a student should learn how to tell the differences between a reliable source of online information and a non-reliable one.

Even though the articles in the library databases are more reliable than the ones found in Google, a student should always be on the look out and get as much information about the article and the author as possible, this would help the essay become a success. Work Cited Cohabitation in the United States. Wikipedia, 17 Sept. 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. Turner, R. “Rising Prevalence of Cohabitation In United States May have Partially Offset Decline in Marriage Rates. ” Family Planning Perspectives 22. 2 (1990): 90-91. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 1 Oct. 2012

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