Assessing Relevance
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Even a highly reliable source needs to be relevant to your research question and your ideas about how to answer that question. An interesting fact or opinion could be just that–interesting. Instead, you need facts, expert opinions, information, and quotations that relate directly to your purpose and audience.
Considering Your Purpose
For a review of selecting sources, see section B in the Quick Research Guide.
For more on testing evidence, see Learning by Writing in Ch. 9.
As you collect and select sources, consider what makes one source better than another. Think about whether the information it includes is useful for your purposes. Would its strong quotations or hard facts be effective? Does it tackle the topic in a relevant way? For one paper, you might appropriately rely on a popular magazine; for another, you might need the scholarly findings on which the magazine relied. Look for the best sources for your purpose, asking not only Will this do? but also Would something else be better?
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Learning by Doing Reflecting on Sources in a Dialogic Notebook
Learning by Doing
Reflecting on Sources in a Dialogic Notebook
The purpose of keeping a dialogic notebook is to “talk back to” or create a dialogue with your sources, questioning information presented or the source itself, in search of new insight. Create four columns on a piece of paper and label them “Full Citation,” “Quote or Summary,” “What I Think It Means,” and “Information I Still Need.” Complete a dialogic notebook entry for at least three of your sources. Next, choose one of the sources and reflect on how you are using that source for your essay. Think about how the source supports (or doesn’t support) your thesis, and consider its overall usefulness.
Reviewing Your Sources
Once you’ve gathered and evaluated a reasonable collection of sources, it’s time to step back and consider them as a group.
Have you found enough relevant and credible sources to satisfy the requirements of your assignment? Have you found enough to suggest sound answers to your research question?
Are your sources thought provoking? Can you tell what is generally accepted, controversial, or possibly unreliable? Have your sources enlightened you while substantiating, refining, or changing your ideas?
Are your sources varied? Have they helped you achieve a reasonably complete view of your topic, including other perspectives, approaches, alternatives, or interpretations? Have they deepened your understanding and helped you reach well-reasoned, balanced conclusions?
Are your sources appropriate? Do they answer your question with evidence your readers will find persuasive? Do they have the range and depth necessary to achieve your purpose and satisfy your readers?
Use these questions to check in with yourself. Make sure that you have a clear direction for your research–whether it’s the same direction you started with or a completely new one. Perhaps you are ready to answer your research question and move ahead with your project. On the other hand, you may want to find other sources to support or challenge your assumptions, to counter strong evidence against your position, or to pursue a tantalizing new direction.