Evaluating Sources

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Evaluating Sources

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© Bartomeu Amengual/age fotostock

As many examples in this text have shown, the effectiveness of an argument often depends on the quality of the sources that support or prove it. You’ll need to carefully evaluate and assess all your sources, including those that you gather in libraries, from other print sources, in online searches, or in your own field research.

Remember that different sources can contribute in different ways to your work. In most cases, you’ll be looking for reliable sources that provide accurate information or that clearly and persuasively express opinions that might serve as evidence for a case you’re making. At other times, you may be seeking material that expresses ideas or attitudes — how people are thinking and feeling at a given time. You might need to use a graphic image, a sample of avant-garde music, or a controversial YouTube clip that doesn’t fit neatly into categories such as “reliable” or “accurate” yet is central to your argument. With any and all such sources and evidence, your goals are to be as knowledgeable about them and as responsible in their use as you can be and to share honestly what you learn about them with readers.

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No writer wants to be naïve in the use of source material, especially since most of the evidence that is used in arguments on public issues — even material from influential and well-known sources — comes with considerable baggage. Scientists and humanists alike have axes to grind, corporations have products to sell, politicians have issues to promote, journalists have reputations to make, publishers and media companies have readers, listeners, viewers, and advertisers to attract and to avoid offending. All of these groups produce and use information to their own benefit, and it’s not (usually) a bad thing that they do so. You just have to be aware that when you take information from a given source, it will almost inevitably carry with it at least some of the preferences, assumptions, and biases — conscious or not — of the people who produce and disseminate it. Teachers and librarians are not exempted from this caution: even when we make every effort to be clear and comprehensive in reporting information, we cannot possibly see that information from every single angle. So even the most honest and open observer can deliver only a partial account of an event.

To correct for these biases, draw on as many reliable sources as you can handle when you’re preparing to write. You shouldn’t assume that all arguments are equally good or that all the sides in a controversy can be supported by the same weight of evidence and good reasons. But you want to avoid choosing sources so selectively that you miss essential issues and perspectives. That’s easy to do when you read only sources that agree with you or when the sources that you read all seem to carry the same message. In addition, make sure that you read each source thoroughly enough that you understand its overall points: national research conducted for the Citation Project indicates that student writers often draw from the first paragraph or page of a source and then simply drop it, without seeing what the rest of the source has to say about the topic at hand.

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When might a blogger actually be a reliable source — and how would you know?
© Adam Zyglis/Cagel Cartoons, Inc.

Especially when writing on political subjects, be aware that the sources you’re reading or citing almost always support particular beliefs and goals. That fact has been made apparent in recent years by bloggers — from all parts of the political spectrum — who put the traditional news media under daily scrutiny, exposing errors, biases, and omissions. Even so, these political bloggers (mostly amateur journalists, although many are professionals in their own fields) have their own agendas and so must be read with caution themselves.