Utilize the resources and skills necessary to research, communicate, and evaluate information about the arts

Introduction

Has someone ever related some fact or story you were immediately skeptical of? Of course, we’ve all had that happen. Information is only as reliable as its source. Often in our information-saturated lives, the value of good-quality information gets lost amid the vast quantity of fairly shallow information available for quick consumption.

It’s important to cite your sources for several reasons:

• to demonstrate that your information is trustworthy because it comes from well-researched sources;
• to avoid plagiarism and responsibly credit other people’s ideas and work;
• and to allow others to validate your ideas and research by tracking down the sources you used.

As you work through the last module, consider why it’s important to follow a specific system for citing works—in the case of the humanities, the MLA format.

Also, consider how newly discovered works of art become authenticated. For example, what does provenance have to do with this recent movie, The Woman in Gold? Check out the following trailer, and see if you have some ideas.

Work Cited

Anonymous. “Why Citing is Important.” MIT Library Guides. Web. 7 June 2015.

Learning Outcomes

• Identify and evaluate relevant source materials for arts (as well as general) research
• Document sources appropriately using MLA format

OK, let’s get started!