Assessing Sources

Goal:  to determine the credibility, timeliness and relevance of sources

Instructions: Apply these criteria to one of the sources on your Works Cited page. Answer the following questions for each of the sources.

It is important that you find the best possible sources for your research. This involves the simple step of analyzing each source to determine its value. Below are some questions that will help you judge whether a source is strong or weak.

1. Relevance: Is the source closely related to your topic? What percentage of the book or article actually applies to your topic?

2. Credentials and stance of author/publisher: Is the author an expert or a journalist? Does the author quote from expert sources, using facts and statistics to substantiate claims? Is the source published by a government agency, special interest group, corporation, or individual? A good way to determine the credentials and stance of both publicastin and authors is to simply "Google" them. If you cannot find any information on the author or journal, that should indicate that they may not be expert in the field.

3. Date of publication: Was it published in the past five years? If not, is the information historical, or not likely to change?

4. Level of specialization: Is the source writtern for experts or a general audience? Your goal is to give expert opinions, not information the general public already has access to.

5. Audience: Is the source written for a general audience? For advocates or opponents of your argument?

6. Length: Is it long enough to provide adequate support of your claim? Is it too long to read in a span of 3-4 weeks?

7. Omissions: What might be missing from the source? Facts? Statistics? Expert testimonies?