EVALUATING SOURCES HOW TO DECIDE IF YOUR SOURCES

EVALUATING SOURCES HOW TO DECIDE IF YOUR SOURCES ARE RELIABLE FOR YOUR RESEARCH PAPER

WHY DO I NEED TO EVALUATE MY SOURCES? To make sure your sources are acceptable for the assignment. To make sure your sources are the best available.

TIP: RE-EVALUATE SOURCES FOR QUALITY AFTER COMPLETING BIBLIOGRAPHY You should have already evaluated your sources for quality as you searched for them, but before completing your bibliography and starting your paper, you need to check them one more time for suitability. This will save you from discovering after putting a lot of time into the paper that some of your sources are not acceptable.

STEP 1: DOUBLECHECK THE ASSIGNMENT Go back through previous information provided in the assignment to make sure you have not picked any sources that are not allowed. Examples of unacceptable sources: Wikipedia, general encyclopedias, blogs, advertisements, abstracts, conspiracy theories, heavily biased sources, websites that don’t provide credentials, outdated sources, etc.

Do your sources reflect the most recent information available on your topic? STEP 2: CHECK FOR TIMELINESS Is it possible that some of your information might be outdated?

TIP: SEEK CURRENT SCHOLARSHI P ON HISTORICAL TOPICS Even with historical topics, it’s usually best to look for more recent books and articles. Although the actual events of the past will not have changed, current scholarly understanding of those events may have. Just in case new discoveries have been made, check your dates to be sure you have the latest possible information.

Primary Sources: These are original sources THE EXCEPTION: WHEN OLDER SOURCES ARE BEST and documents related to your topic from the initial time period. They might include official records, firsthand accounts, recordings of speeches, and other information that comes directly from the time, place, and people involved in the event. While many of your sources for a research paper, even on a historical topic, will be secondary sources that come from later scholars, primary sources can be essential to historical research. Seminal Works: In academic research, seminal texts are usually publications that changed the whole field of study on a given topic and gave us a unique understanding that persists to this day. For example, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is a seminal work in the field of physics. While many people have written more recent scholarship on the topic, you still need the one big game changer source to make your research on the topic complete.

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN TO USE PRIMARY SOURCES AND WHEN TO USE THE MOST RECENT SECONDARY SOURCES? Do both! If your topic calls for primary sources or seminal works in order to fully explore what can be known about it, by all means, make sure you include those sources in your paper. Don’t stop there, though. Balance your perspective on the topic out by also including the most recent scholarship related to the topic. This is not an either/or situation. Both ends of the spectrum are necessary for good research.

Do you know who wrote your article? If you don’t know the credentials of the author, you should at least know the credentials of the publisher. If you can’t find information on either, you should not use the source. STEP 2: CHECK FOR CREDIBILITY Can you find anything that might suggest bias on the part of the author or publisher? If so, you need to think twice before using the source. Sometimes you can use a biased source if you balance it out with an alternate opinion, but if the bias is strong, it’s best to find something else altogether. Does it sound like a conspiracy theory? If so, and you are unable to verify the information in sources known to be reliable, it’s a terrible source. Drop it now.

STEP 3: CHECK FOR RELATABILITY TO YOUR TOPIC AND THESIS 1 2 Make sure your sources are what you think they are. Sometimes students collect source materials without reading them thoroughly, only to discover later that the article isn’t really on topic. Make sure you have the sources you need to cover your sub-topics. It won’t help you finish a research paper if your sources are about your first two sub-topics and you come up short on the others. 3 Make sure your sources are helping you stay on track with your thesis. If they aren’t, you either need new sources or a new thesis.

STEP 4: CHECK THAT YOUR SOURCES ARE SUBSTANTIV E To write a good research paper, you’re going to need a lot of information. If your sources are all too short and/or too general, you will end up having trouble putting the paper together. They need to go in depth, and they need to be detailed. You might think you are saving time to pick short articles that are easier to read, but those types of articles will just end up causing more problems in the end. Go for substance from the start.

TIP: EXPECT TO REPLACE SOME SOURCES AFTER THE FACT If you do a good job of putting together your bibliography, you will drastically reduce the number of sources you need to replace once you start writing the paper. However, you will not eliminate the need to keep checking for new sources. That’s just part of the process. Everyone discovers something they still need to research after they start writing. A good researcher takes that in stride and continues to search for information throughout the writing process. The goal is to start out with a solid basis of research so that even if you do keep looking for information you are searching from a stronger and stronger position each time. In other words, the more you learn, the more you’ll learn what you still need to know. Choose wisely from the start, and that process can be deeply rewarding and deeply informative.