CAS 215 introduces you to the "Theory of influencing belief and conduct, gathering of material, analysis of proposition, case building, briefing, outlining, evidence, cross-examination, refutation, rebuttal, composition and delivery of the argumentative speech."

This Guide will provide you with a variety of resources available to you as a Penn State Student through the University Libraries  or freely available on the Internet.

Always ask a Librarian if you are having trouble!

Think critically about web sites and print resources.  

• Authority: Who is the author or creator?  What are their credentials for this topic?
• Content: What is the author's bias? Who was the information written for?
• Currency: What is the publication date?  When was the website last updated? Does this matter for your topic?
• Validity: Is the information accurate or valid?  Are there references to other works that support the information?
• Publisher: Do they have a good reputation?

When using information from another source you must give credit to the original author or you are plagiarizing. You give credit by citing the source. Make sure your citation contains everything you would need to backtrack and find the information again. It is best to pick one citation style and be consistent. 

Plagiarism, whether you copy a paragraph from a book or cut and paste someone else's words from an e-mail, is a violation of Penn State's academic integrity policy.