Evaluating sources
You can often locate dozens or even hundreds of potential sources for your topic—far more than you will have time to read. Your challenge will be to determine what kinds of sources you need to answer your research questions and to zero in on a reasonable number of quality sources. This kind of decision making is referred to as evaluating sources. When you evaluate a source, you make a judgment about how useful the source is to your project.
Evaluating sources isn’t something you do in one sitting. After you do some planning, searching, and reading, for example, you may reflect on the information you have collected and conclude that you need to rethink your research question—and so you return to assessing the kinds of sources you need. You may be midway through drafting your paper when you begin to question a particular source’s credibility, at which point you return to searching and reading.
The following questions may help you evaluate sources at each stage of your project.
Evaluate as you plan
- What kinds of sources do you need?
- What do you need these sources to help you do: Define? Persuade? Inform?
Evaluate as you search
- How can you find reliable sources that help you answer your research question?
- Which sources will help you build your credibility as a researcher?
Evaluate as you read
- What positions do these sources take in the debate on your topic? What are their biases?
- How do these sources inform your own understanding of the topic and the position you will take?
Evaluate as you write
- How do the sources you’ve chosen help you make your point?
- How R-36do your own ideas fit into the research conversation on your topic?