The effectiveness of your informative essay depends heavily on your selection and use of sources. As you revise, ask yourself these questions: Have you chosen the right sources to support your points? Have you used enough sources to make your points effectively? Have you used the right amount of evidence from your sources? Have you clearly differentiated your own ideas from those of your sources? Have you clearly identified the sources from which you’ve drawn information? Have you provided appropriate citations in both the text and the works cited list? Have you paraphrased accurately and fairly? Have you quoted properly?

You can learn more about using information from sources in Chapter 19. For a fuller discussion of why you should document sources, see Chapter 13. For guidelines on the MLA and APA documentation systems, see Chapters 21 and 22.