Evaluating sources

ByBrandee Love, Stephanie Sullivan, and Teebeh

Nyakoon

How to determine whether a source

is significant, accurate, or

unbiased?• If a source is significant, it must pertain to your

topic.

• If a source is accurate, you must determine whether it is trustworthy or not. To do this, you investigate the author to see if they have to qualifications necessary to write about such topic.

• When reading the work, you will be able to tell if the source is biased. Usually if a source contains bias, you should not use it when conducting research.

Evaluating a source…

First, you must choose a book, article, and website to use as your source.

When using a book as a source…

• The book must have some type of purpose pertaining to your topic.

• It is more a more trustworthy source if it was published by a university. If published by another source, you must conduct further background research into the publisher.

• It needs to be organized and have the conlisted in a logical and orderly matter.

Book Source…(continued)

• The book also needs to be up-to-date so that the information you receive is more accurate.

• Determine whether or not the author is an expert in the field.

• The book source will be more reliable if it contains a bibliography. Even if it does not contain one, the source can still be reliable.

• Make sure the book is useful to your research project and covers the topic comprehensively of your choosing.

Using an article as a source…

• Determine the purpose of the article. Whether it is persuasive and inform the article.

• For college-term papers, it is best to use scholarly journals as your source of information.

• Determine the type of article: scholarly, magazine, or popular magazines such as Times and Newsweek.

Article source…(continued).

• You need to determine if the article is up-to-date.

• Scholarly articles always contain a bibliography of the sources consulted.

• Make sure the article of your choosing is relevant to your topic and covers your topic in depth.

• Determine the level of the book and whether it is appropriate for your needs.

Using a website as a source…

• Determine whether the author or the organization has the proper experience to provide reliable information. Also, make sure it is written by an organization that is well known and trusted. In addition to discovering the purpose of the website and what information it is providing.

• Check for a bibliography or other references pertaining to the source.

Website…(continued).

• Check to see if the source has been reviewed by an expert in the field.

• Determine if the source has been through a formal publication process.

• Determine there is bias information, if there is, try to counterbalance the information with facts.

• Also, check to see if the website is up-to-date.

Our book source…

• The novel we chose was Multiple Sclerosis: Everything You Need To Know by Paul O’Connor.

• The purpose of the book is to inform the reader on everything you need to know about MS. It broadly touches each sub category within the novel itself, it also included stories and facts about MS to give you a better understanding. It teaches you how to cope with MS, and how to help others with the illness.

• Firefly Books published this novel in 2005 in the United States.

• The table of contents is ordered in logical and understanding matter.

Our book source (continued)

• This novel is not as up to date as possible, but it is still recent enough to be useful.

• The author, Paul O’Connor, is a professional in this field. He has been dealing and treating patients with Multiple Sclerosis for more than twenty years. Currently, Paul is an “Associate Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at the University of Toronto and director of the MS Clinic, and chief of the Division of Neurology at St. Michael’s Hospital,” (O’Connor, 2005, back cover).

Our article source…Depressive Symptoms and Coping in

Newly Diagnosed Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

• This article is a 2009 collective of sources of publications written on multiple sclerosis.

• The article as a whole is organized cohesively and as well as were the tables that it included.

• It contains no recognizable bias whatsoever.

Our article source (continuted)

• It optimistically covered the topic of the coping strategies of patients with MS with useful information.

• It was perhaps written for professionals to teach non-professional or for non-professionals, such as students, to obtain high-level information.

• This article contained a lengthy professional bibliography as well as being published by Sage Publications, Ltd.

Our website source …

• We chose the Medline Plus website.

• The website does have the qualifications to provide the information. The information came from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

• The website can be trusted in providing the information.

• The organization does have a positive purpose and is easy to navigate.

Our website source(continued)

• The website does not include a bibliography, however it does contain other helpful resources.

• The material on the website has been reviewed by an expert and is copyrighted.

• There was no bias information found in the website.

• It has been recently updated within the last couple of weeks.

THE END