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ENG101: Comp & Rhetoric: Evaluating Sources

Evaluation Criteria--Checklist Strategy

Evaluation Criteria things to consider when evaluating your source quality. Authority: Who wrote it? What is their expertise? Who do they work for? Why are they trustworthy? How do you know that? Currency: When was this written? How long ago was the info they're quoting published? Has information changed since then? Sources/Data: Where did they get their information? Did they collect it themselves? How did they? If not, what info do they use to prove their point? Purpose: What is the goal of this source? Are they trying to convince you of something? Inform you? Sell you something? Educate you? Point of View: What is the author or organization's perspective? How does that affect their argument? Funding/Transparency: Who funded the research? Who funds the organization? Does that impact their findings? Does that provide potential bias? Explore the source to find evidence to answer these questions. Balance: Does the author provide multiple points of view? Do they address the counterarguments from the other side? Does it provide a balanced view? Organization: Who published the source? What is the goal of the organization? Are they open and transparent about that? Remember that this isn't a check list. Instead, you need to consider the relative strength of the criteria and if the overall quality leans most convincingly for or against use. Charles C. Myers Library

Information use: how will you use the information

The BEAM spectrum is a way to think about how you can use sources for your project. What type of information are you looking for? What do you need to accomplish? Construct an argument? Provide evidence? Or just report basic facts?

Remember, not all projects will require you to use sources in all four ways. And some sources will help you in more than one of these categories.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Adapted from Kristin M. Woodward & Kate Ganski's "What Could A Writer Do With This Source?"

Evaluation Criteria--Lateral Strategy