Step 1: WARNING (Introduction)

It is important that you evaluate ALL of your sources because:

Step 2: Who wrote it?

• Sometimes the "author is an organization"
• It can be difficult to track down the author of a website
• Click on links that say things like "about this page" or biography

Does the author have the expertise to give facts and opinions on this topic?

Many of us can expound at length on topics we know nothing about. So besides the author's name you need to know what authority he has to expound. You can determine this by seeing if they are connected with a college or university, an organization, a government agency, or have written other works on the topic.

Places to check:

• biographical database
• library reference section
  • Ref DA28 .W6 Who's Who (check the library catalog for other Who's Who titles like Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Science, etc.)
  • Ref CT100 .C8 Current Biography Yearbook
• library catalog or World Cat database to see if they have published other things.
• if it's a print resource, check to see if it includes information on the author
• if it's a website, see if you can find the sponsoring organization
• look at the URL (Internet address).
  lf it ends in
  • .gov = government
  • .edu = education (college or university)
  • .org = nonprofit organization
  • .com = commercial
  • .mil = military

Step 3: Who published it?

What individual or group is bringing you this material?

Why did they publish it?

• Do they want to sell you something?
• Do they want to convince you of something?
• Are they trying to make research available to others in their field?

Who is the target audience?

• Age?
• Educational level?
• Professional, researcher, anyone with money in their pocket?

Places to check

• Publisher's mission or purpose statement
• Library catalog or World Cat database to see what other kinds of things they publish.
• Enter the publisher's name in a search engine along with 1 of these keywords - homepage, about us, contact or official
• If it's a webpage check the page or the site's homepage for "about us", or mission statement

Step 4: When was it published?

Timeliness is very important! Particularly if you are writing on a current event or issue.

• Book
  • Check the publication date on the reverse of the title page of a book
  • Check the Library catalog or World Cat database to see if it's the latest edition
• Journal article
  • Check the publication date on any journal article
  • Check the citations in the text and bibliography to see how current they are
• Website
  • See if you can find when the webpage was created or last updated.

Step 5: Does it contain well supported arguments and valid research?

Some questions to ask yourself:

• Is this a primary source (first publication of research, or original account) or a secondary source (a report, analysis or interpretation of primary data)?
• Does it seem like a balances point of view, or does is show a particular bias?
• Are the opinions or conclusions supported with valid evidence?
• Look at the bibliography to see what sources were used.

Put what you've learned to work.

Here are two websites that give information about Martin Luther King Jr.

• www.martinlutherking.org
• www.thekingcenter.org/mlk/index.html

Do you detect any bias?

What organization is responsible for putting this information on the web?