This page will help you choose which sources to use for your assignment. It includes information on:
On this learning guide, you will find the following methods:
Sources reflect their creator's experiences, expertise, and biases. Authority is constructed in that various communities may recognize different types of authority. It is contextual in that your information need may help to determine the level of authority required.
Recognizing different types of authority can help determine whether a source fits your information need. Consider whose perspectives are included and whose are left out and what voices and perspectives would you like include in your discussion of your topic.
Note: an author can be a person, journalist, scholar, organization, website.
Some types of authority:
Created by Mike Caulfield, SIFT is a method to determine the reliability of your source. These are four actions you can take when evaluating a source. The moves are:
1. Stop
2. Investigate the source
3. Find better coverage
4. Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context
Related to SIFT, lateral reading is the third move of SIFT. You are meant to leave the website you are evaluating to read elsewhere and check up on the content in the original website. Three questions form the core of lateral reading:
There are many methods to help you evaluate information. Nearly all of these cover:
Date: Is this information current and how important is that for my topic? If the source is a website, does it show you when it was written or last updated?
Authority: Does the person sharing this information have credentials or expertise in this area? Are there perspectives or viewpoints being left out?
Note: If you are reading a news article, the journalist does not need to have subject-matter expertise in the area they are reporting on. The authority that you are analyzing in a news piece is for who is being quoted or providing information to the journalist.
Purpose: Why was this created? Is the author trying to change your mind? Does it use language that provokes outrage or anger? Who is likely profiting from this source and how might that be affecting the information presented?
Accuracy: Have they cited their sources? Is information being taken out of context or misrepresented? Are other sources disputing or corroborating the information?
No evaluation tool is perfect for every instance and no checklist can solve the complexity of evaluating sources. The following are good places to start in deciding whether your sources are reliable.
Watch this video from the UC Berkeley Library to learn the basics of:
