The many research assignments and types of projects that I have worked on in my courses have allowed me to achieve the Information Literacy outcome. Over the years I have perfected research methods by developing a number of skills that come in useful in any class or academic setting. These include utilizing university sanctioned databases to obtain scholarly source material for what I am researching, as well as being able to sift through and differentiate between sources that may be unreliable. I have gotten a grasp on the various schools of source citations and have used MLA, APA, and Chicago style formats, usually depending on the subject matter or the professor's instructions. I am most familiar with the Chicago format, as the footnotes are preferred in historical essays and research papers.

When setting out to conduct a research for a paper or project, finding reliable material is often a problem students face, especially with Google searches and Wikipedia so readily available. Even more challenging, after the initial information is found, it must be processed and categorized in one's mind and then transferred into an intelligible written work, keeping in mind to cite everything for fear of plagiarism. Trial and error has really been what has worked for me. If a teacher strictly implements rules about sources and how they are to be cited, and you fail to meet the requirements, the grade you earn on your project, paper, or assignment will suffer.