EVALUATING SOURCES
What am I looking at? (Blog, scholarly article, news article, webpage, etc.)
Who wrote it or published it?
What is the purpose of the source? (Inform, persuade, sell, etc.)
Who is the intended audience?
Is the information accurate? (Use lateral reading to find out - see definitions below)
Is the information too old for this topic?
Is there any bias in the source? (Are all sides of an issue presented? Sites such as Allsides, Factcheck.org or Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart can be helpful tools)
Was AI used to create this source? (See the News Literacy Project's infographic: 6 things to know about AI)
This Open Access textbook from Ohio State University may be helpful. After clicking the link to the left, use the down arrow on the top left to open the content sections.
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Peer Review - when a scholarly work is evaluated by peers in the field prior to publication. Peers check for accuracy, completeness, proper methodology and citation.
Triangulation - when verifying reported facts, if three reputable sources report the same thing, it is generally thought that the information is probably true.
Lateral Reading - a source evaluation strategy involving leaving a source (website, book, article) you found and checking other sources to see what is being said by others about the original source.
Abstract - a summary of the contents of an article often included with scholarly articles found in databases.
Citation - crediting another's work. There are many different styles of citation (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc). Different academic disciplines use different citation styles.
Reference List/Works Cited - a list of the works cited in a paper or article.
Bibliography - a detailed list of all the sources read, reviewed and cited in the course of preparing a work.
Annotated Bibliography - a list of citations that includes a short summary or description of the work under each citation.
