Evaluate Sources
Evaluating Sources
Be critical in choosing sources for your research. Take a few minutes to quickly scan and examine the source by yourself. Then answer the following questions about the source.
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What would you call your source (or what type of source is your source)?
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Who wrote and published your source? Does/why does this matter?
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What do you know about how your article was created? Does/why does this matter?
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What information could you get from your source for your assignment? Which specialist might it be most useful for?
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Would this source be appropriate to use in your assignment? Why or why not?
If you want to dig deeper, try these questions from Troy Swanson's "Information is Personal"
- How do you know what you know?
- What information do you trust?
- What causes you to disagree with a piece of information?
- What counts as epertise?
- Who can publish on a specific issue?
- Who cannot and why?
- Whose voice is included/excluded?
- What information is trusted by society?
- Interactive Media Bias Chart® 5.0Take a look at this chart created by ad fontes media. It’s a unique way of laying out the complex media landscape in two dimensions: reliability, on the vertical axis, and bias, on the horizontal axis. As with all information sources, take these ratings with a grain of salt and make your own opinion.
Comparing Different Sources
From NCSU: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/scholarly-popular/