Social Media Bias

Paper Length– The required length is from 1800 to 2500 words.  The word count of your paper must appear at the bottom of the last page of text. Sources:   Your paper must be based on at least eight appropriate sources. Internet Sources– No more than half your sources may be from the Internet.  Capitalize the word “Internet.”  Online proprietary databases are not considered Internet sources. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias that have print editions from which the online editions are taken are not counted towards your Internet sources. Newspapers and magazines are not counted as Internet sources. If you find material from The New York Times quoted in an article on another Internet site, that quote counts as an Internet source. Books that are available online are not considered Internet sources. Note: your first and last stop in doing research for your paper should not only be Google.  While indespensible, Google and the other general Search Engines are too vast and produce results which might not be suitable for academic research. Try Google Scholar and Touro Library databases such as Proquest and Ebsco Host. Academic Suitability– Your sources are required to be academically suitable.  Read the following carefully.  Not to Be Used You may not use student written essays as sources You may not use essays posted on the various “free essay” sites available on the World Wide Web as sources. You may not use the home pages of individuals as your sources; however, exceptions might be made for distinctly authoritative sources. While a few do have academic merit, most blogs are not suitable.  May Be Used You may use an encyclopedia, whether general or specialized; Wikipedia may only be used for background information and for links and references. If you are using a dictionary to define a term, you must list that dictionary’s bibliographic information on your works cited page. Note: this will not count as one of your ten required sources. It is expected that students will need to define terms and will need to use a dictionary to do so. You may use any of the proprietary databases available through the Touro Virtual Library; for example, Ebscohost, ProQuest etc. You may use most articles from any of the journals in these databases as they are, for the most part, juried journals. When in doubt, ask your instructor. You may use most of the sources found in the Literature Center in the Touro Virtual Library (see the exceptions above).   Print Sources You may use material taken from major newspapers, either from the actual print edition or from the collections available through the Virtual Library. Keep in mind that The New York Times is a major newspaper, but The Daily News is not.  You may use articles that have appeared in the Sunday Times Magazine and in other general circulation periodicals, such as Newsweek, The New Yorker, Psychology Today, Business Week, Scientific American Note: exercise care here; many articles in these publications are not appropriate for academic papers. When in doubt, ask your instructor. You may use books in the Touro Library collections that are specific to your topic.   Quotation Sources There are a number of quotation sources available both in print and online, such as Bartlett’s Quotations and Brainyquotes.com. Should you take a quotation from any of these types of sources, you must include it in your Works Cited listing.  However, a quotation from such a source will not count as one of your 10 required outside sources.  If you feel that a particular quotation you find in one of these quotation sources is necessary for your paper, you will need to do the research to find that quotation in the work that originally contained that quotation.  For example, if you find a quotation from “The Declaration of Independence” in a quotation source, you will need to get to an actual, authoritative copy of the “Declaration” and use that as the source on your Works Cited page.  If a quotation in one of these types of quotation sources is taken from a speech, you will need to research and find an authoritative source that gives a copy of that speech.  In short, quotations may indeed support the points you are making, but they will be counted towards your 10 required outside sources ONLY if they come from authoritative sources and only if there is additional material taken from the authoritative source that you discuss in your own words.