17c Evaluate a source’s usefulness and credibility.

• Your purpose. What will this source add to your research project? Does it help you support a major point, demonstrate that you have thoroughly researched your topic, or help establish your own credibility through its authority?
• Relevance. How closely related is the source to the narrowed topic you are pursuing? You may need to read beyond the title and opening paragraph to check for relevance.
• Level of specialization and audience. General sources can be helpful as you begin your research, but you may then need the authority or currency of more specialized sources. On the other hand, extremely specialized works may be very hard to understand. Who was the source originally written for—the general public? experts in the field? advocates or opponents? How does this fit with your concept of your own audience?
• Credentials of the publisher or sponsor. What can you learn about the publisher or sponsor of the source you are using? For example, is it a newspaper known for integrity, or is it a tabloid? Is it a popular source, or is it sponsored by a professional or governmental organization or academic institution? If you’re evaluating a book, is the publisher one you recognize or can find described on its own Web site? No hard and fast rules exist for deciding what kind of source to use. But knowing the sponsor’s or publisher’s credentials can help you determine whether a source is appropriate for your research project.
• Credentials of the author. As you do your research, note names that come up from one source to another, since these references may indicate that the author is influential in the field. An author’s credentials may also be presented in the article, book, or Web site, or you can search the Internet for information about the author. In U.S. academic writing, experts and those with significant experience in a field have more authority on the subject than others.
• Date of publication. Recent sources are often more useful than older ones, particularly in the sciences or other fields that change rapidly. However, in some fields—such as the humanities—the most authoritative works may be older ones. The publication dates of Internet sites can often be difficult to pin down. And even for sites that include dates of posting, remember that the material posted may have been composed some time earlier.
• Accuracy of the source. How accurate and complete is the information in the source? How thorough is the bibliography or list of works cited that accompanies the source? Can you find other sources that corroborate what your source is saying?
• Stance of the source. Identify the source’s point of view or rhetorical stance, and scrutinize it carefully. Does the source present facts, or does it interpret or evaluate them? If it presents facts, what is included and what is omitted, and why? If it interprets or evaluates information that is not disputed, the source’s stance may be obvious, but at other times, you will need to think carefully about the source’s goals (17d). What does the author or sponsoring group want? to convince you of an idea? sell you something? call you to action in some way?
• Cross-references to the source. Is the source cited in other works? If you see your source cited by others, notice how they cite it and what they say about it to find additional clues to its credibility.