Chapter 42: Evaluating Sources
As you gather sources, the textbook Successful Writing explains that you will need to examine them with a critical eye. Smart researchers continually ask themselves two questions: “Is this source relevant to my purpose?” and “Is this source reliable?” The first question will help you avoid wasting valuable time reading sources that stray too far from your specific topic and research questions. The second question will help you find accurate, trustworthy sources.
Determining Whether a Source is Relevant
To weed through your stack of books and articles, skim their contents with your research questions and subtopics in mind. Table 32.1 “Tips for Skimming Books and Articles” explains how skimming can help you obtain a quick sense of what topics are covered. If a book or article is not especially relevant, put it aside. You can always come back to it later if you need to.
| Tips for Skimming Books | Tips for Skimming Articles |
|---|---|
| 1. Read the dust jacket and table of contents for a broad overview of the topics covered. | 1. Skim the introduction and conclusion for summary material. |
| 2. Use the index to locate more specific topics and see how thoroughly they are covered. | 2. Skim through subheadings and text features such as sidebars. |
| 3. Flip through the book and look for subtitles or key terms that correspond to your research. | 3. Look for keywords related to your topic. |
| 4. Journal articles often begin with an abstract or summary of the contents. Read it to determine the article’s relevance to your research. |
Determining Whether a Source is Reliable
All information sources are not created equally. Sources can vary greatly in terms of how carefully they are researched, written, edited, and reviewed for accuracy. Common sense will help you identify obviously questionable sources, such as tabloids that feature tales of alien abductions or personal websites with glaring typos. Sometimes, a source’s reliability—or lack of it—is not so obvious.
To evaluate your research sources, use critical thinking skills consciously and deliberately. You will consider criteria such as the type of source, its intended purpose and audience, the author’s (or authors’) qualifications, the publication’s reputation, any indications of bias or hidden agendas, how current the source is, and the overall quality of the writing, thinking, and design.
Evaluating Types of Sources
The different types of sources you will consult are written for distinct purposes and with different audiences in mind. This accounts for other differences, such as the following:
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How thoroughly the writers cover a given topic.
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How carefully the writers’ research and document facts.
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How editors review the work.
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What biases or agendas affect the content.
A journal article written for an academic audience for the purpose of expanding scholarship in a given field will take an approach quite different from a magazine feature written to inform a general audience. Textbooks, hard news articles, and websites approach a subject from different angles as well. To some extent, the type of source provides clues about its overall depth and reliability. Table 32.2 “Source Rankings” ranks different source types.
Table 32.2 Source Rankings
Tip
Free online encyclopedias and wikis may seem like a great source of information. They usually appear among the first few results of a web search, they cover thousands of topics, and they include articles with an informal, straightforward writing style. Unfortunately, these sites have no control system for researching, writing, and reviewing articles. Instead, they rely on a community of users to police themselves. At best, these sites can be a starting point for finding other, more trustworthy sources. Never use them as final sources.
Evaluating Credibility and Reputability
Even when you are using a type of source that is generally reliable, you will still need to evaluate the author’s credibility and the publication itself on an individual basis. To examine the author’s credibility or ethos—that is, how much you can believe of what the author has to say—review their credentials. What career experience or academic study shows that the author has the expertise to write about this topic?
Just as important as the author’s credibility is the publication’s overall reputability. Reputability refers to a source’s standing and reputation as a respectable, reliable source of information. A website that is maintained by a well-known, respected organization and is regularly updated is more reputable than one created by an unknown author or group.
If you are using articles from scholarly journals, you can check databases that keep count of how many times each article has been cited in other articles. This can be a rough indication of the article’s quality or, at the very least, of its influence and reputation among other scholars.
Checking for Biases and Hidden Agendas
Whenever you consult a source, always think carefully about the author’s or authors’ purpose in presenting the information. Few sources present facts completely objectively. In some cases, the source’s content and tone are significantly influenced by biases or hidden agendas.
Bias refers to favoritism or prejudice toward a particular person or group. For instance, an author may be biased against a certain political party and present information in a way that subtly—or not so subtly—makes that organization look bad. Bias can lead an author to present facts selectively, edit quotations to misrepresent someone’s words, and distort information.
Hidden agendas are goals that are not immediately obvious but influence how an author presents the facts. For instance, an article about the role of beef in a healthy diet would be questionable if it were written by a representative of the beef industry—or by the president of an animal-rights organization. In both cases, the author would likely have a hidden agenda.
Using Current Sources
Be sure to seek out sources that are current or up to date. Depending on the topic, sources may become outdated relatively soon after publication, or they may remain useful for years. For instance, online social networking sites have evolved rapidly over the past few years. An article published in 2010 about this topic will not provide current information. On the other hand, a research paper on elementary education practices might refer to studies published decades ago by influential child psychologists and are still relevant.
When using websites for research, check to see when the site was last updated. Many sites publish this information on the homepage, and some, such as news sites, are updated daily or weekly. Many non-functioning links are a sign that a website is not regularly updated. Do not be afraid to ask your professor for suggestions if you find that many of your most relevant sources are not especially reliable—or that the most reliable sources are not relevant.
Evaluating Overall Quality by Asking Questions
When you evaluate a source, consider the criteria previously discussed as well as your overall impressions of its quality. Read carefully and notice how well the author presents and supports his or her statements. Stay actively engaged—do not simply accept an author’s words as truth. Ask questions to determine each source’s value. See Table 32.3 for a list of evaluative criteria.
Table 32.3 Source Evaluation Checklist
- Is the type of source appropriate for my purpose?
- Is it a high-quality source or one that needs to be looked at more critically?
- Can I establish that the author is credible and the publication is reputable?
- Does the author support ideas with specific facts and details that are carefully documented? Is the source of the author’s information clear? (When you use secondary sources, look for sources that are not too removed from primary research.)
- Does the source include any factual errors or instances of faulty logic?
- Does the author leave out any information that I would expect to see in a discussion of this topic?
- Do the author’s conclusions logically follow from the evidence that is presented? Can I see how the author got from one point to another?
- Is the writing clear and organized, and is it free from errors, clichés, and empty buzzwords? Is the tone objective, balanced, and reasonable? (Be on the lookout for extreme, emotionally charged language.)
- Are there any obvious biases or agendas? Based on what I know about the author, are there likely to be any hidden agendas?
- Are graphics informative, useful, and easy to understand? Are websites organized, easy to navigate, and free of clutter like flashing ads and unnecessary sound effects?
- Is the source contradicted by information found in other sources? (If so, it is possible that your sources are presenting similar information but taking different perspectives, which requires you to think carefully about which sources you find more convincing and why. Be suspicious, however, of any source that presents facts that you cannot confirm elsewhere.)
Adapted from “Chapter 11” of Successful Writing, 2012, used according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
