Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of a source - Evaluating sources - Research

Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021

Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of a source
Evaluating sources
Research

✵ How to detect false and misleading sources

✵ Tips for evaluating sources

✵ Writing guide: How to write an annotated bibliography

You will often locate far more potential sources on your topic than you will have time to read. Your challenge then is to determine what kinds of sources you need and what you need these sources to do — and to select a reasonable number of trustworthy sources. This kind of decision making is referred to as evaluating sources.

53a Evaluate the reliability and usefulness of a source.

Using reliable sources adds to your credibility and authority as a writer. The following questions will help you judge the reliability and usefulness of sources you might use to support your research project. Ideally, you want to choose sources that are relevant, current, credible, and bias-free.

Relevance

Is the source clearly related to your research topic and your argument? Will your readers understand why you’ve included the source in your paper? What does the source add to your understanding of the research conversation? How does it help you answer your research question?

Currency

How recent is the source? Is the information up-to-date? Does your research topic require current information? Will your research benefit from consulting older sources, including primary sources from a historical period?

Credibility

Where does the source come from? Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials or experience? How accurate and trustworthy is the information? Who published the source? Is it an academic, peer reviewed source? If the source is authored by an organization, what research has the organization done to support its claims? Are the source’s ideas and research cited by other writers? For more advice on evaluating a source’s credibility, see the box on page 367.

Bias

Does the author endorse political or religious views that could affect objectivity? Are evidence and counterevidence presented in a fair and objective way? Is the author engaging in a scholarly debate or giving a personal point of view?

DETERMINING WHETHER A SOURCE IS SCHOLARLY

Scholarly sources are written by experts for a knowledgeable audience and usually go into more depth than books and articles written for a general audience. Scholarly sources are sometimes called refereed or peer reviewed because the work is evaluated by experts in the field before publication.

To determine whether a source is scholarly, look for the following:

✵ Formal language and presentation

✵ Authors who are academics or scientists

✵ Footnotes or a bibliography documenting the works cited in the source

✵ Original research and interpretation (rather than a summary of other people’s work)

TIPS FOR EVALUATING SOURCES

Check for signs of bias

✵ Does the author or publisher endorse political or religious views that could affect objectivity?

✵ Is the author or publisher associated with a special-interest group, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) or the National Rifle Association (NRA), that might emphasize one side of an issue?

✵ Are alternative views presented and addressed? How fairly does the author treat opposing views?

✵ Does the author’s language show signs of bias?

Bias doesn’t always render a source unuseful. Acknowledging bias when you see it helps you place the source in the context of the debate and in the context of your own purpose and audience.

Assess the writer’s (or organization’s) argument

✵ What is the author’s central claim or thesis?

✵ How does the author support this claim — with relevant and sufficient evidence or with just a few anecdotes or emotional examples?

✵ Are statistics consistent with those you encounter in other sources? Does the author explain where the statistics come from?

✵ Are any of the author’s assumptions questionable? Is the logic flawed?

✵ Does the author consider opposing arguments and refute them persuasively?

You want to find sources that both support your argument and present other arguments, but it helps to try to determine whether a source’s argument has merit and is based on evidence.