Determining if an information source is right for your paper!
- Engage (e.g., read, hear, view, touch)
- Does the information have an author, date of publication, publisher information, affiliation, and author’s credentials?
- Determine how effective the source is.
- If a website, where does the information appear? Is it a commercial website? Does the website have any obvious social, political, product bias?
- Can the information be verified or validated in other sources?
- Extract relevant information
- What information do I expect to find in this source? For example, do I expect to find background information, history, statistics, facts, or anecdotes?
- What information from the source is useful?
- If there is an abstract, this will help determine the source’s usefulness for the task at hand
- Find one good source! (Very often, once you find one good source of information, this source’s Work Cited page will lead you to many more, saving you time)