Not all sources, whether electronic or print, provide trustworthy information. Also, you may need to use particular types of sources for some assignments. Because of this, it is essential to critically evaluate the source materials you find. These are some of the questions you should be asking:
- Is this a scholarly source? Has it undergone a peer review process?
- Is this a primary, secondary, or tertiary source?
- Is this source current, or is the information it presents outdated?
- Is this source founded on solid academic research?
- In what ways are the information in this source biased?
This guide is designed to help you answer these questions. When you have carefully evaluated your sources, you can confidently read them, pull information from them, and write your paper.