“How do I evaluate my sources?”

After Orlov had conducted several searches and narrowed her list of results, she downloaded her sources and began evaluating them. She wanted to see what evidence and claims she would need to address to strengthen her argument.

She looked carefully at an article in eWeek, an online business computing magazine. To keep track of her thoughts about the author’s text, she made notes in the margins as she read. Taking good notes would help her to begin forming her own lines of argument and avoid plagiarism.

Orlov’s notes on an eWeek article

Reading sources critically

Evaluating all sources

Evaluating sources found on the Web