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Question 5. Evaluate your sources
First, watch this video:
Then use the Source Evaluation Handout below to evaluate your source. The Handout is organized in two sections, one for The Source and one to address Beyond the Source. It provides examples of potential answers to the questions that you may encounter when examining a source. These are focused questions to “ask” a source, or factors to discover within a source when considering its credibility.
Pro Tips & Common Mistakes
- Be sure to evaluate your source based on questions included in the "Source" and "Beyond the Source" sections
- Use the accompanying chart to see examples of possible answers
- How current your article needs to be depends on your topic! If it's something in the fields of science, health, or business, for example, it needs to be recent. If it's about literature, history, or philosophy, for example, an older article might be just as useful.
- Not all articles from scholarly journals are scholarly! You might also find editorials or book reviews in scholarly journals.