This link opens in a new windowNow it is time for you to practice evaluating the quality of a source! Use the example source above and rate it for its:
Submit your rating (on a scale from 0-4) for each characteristic in the box to the right ➜
Incorporating and citing evidence in your work will not only lend more credibility, it will also demonstrate your expertise on the topic. Readers see that you have done further research to inform your stance on an issue and have not simply made things up or exaggerated. Incorporating evidence into your writing or speaking will make your audience more likely to consider and adopt your conclusions. Providing references also allows your readers to directly verify your claims and access further information on the subject.
But not all evidence is created equal. The quality of the evidence you use will impact the degree to which your audience will accept your position.
So what are the characteristics of quality sources?
The sources you rely on should be clear and comprehensible to your readers, so that your readers can easily make connections between the evidence presented in your sources and the claims you're making based on that evidence.
What to generally avoid:
Time to practice!
This link opens in a new windowA source is considered accurate when its claims are supported by expert knowledge or opinion. Any author who borrows information from another source should give credit to the original source through citations, a list of references, or hyperlinked works. Works striving for accuracy will identify what information is borrowed and give your reader a complete reference so that your reader can locate the original source and read it for themselves.
What to generally avoid:
Time to practice!
This link opens in a new windowRelevance is important because your readers expect that claims or ideas are supported with pertinent and current information. Supporting your research with information that has been superseded by new research or recent events weakens your argument. In some disciplines, the date of the source is less important, while in others it is very important.
What to generally avoid:
This link opens in a new windowPrecision is a measure of closeness among the results obtained through a series of experiments under similar conditions. It represents the degree to which your audience can have confidence in the results of the experiment or study. In regards to statistics, this refers to the confidence interval which represents how precisely the researchers are able to report their estimates. The more sound the experiment method (e.g. large or diverse sampling, repetition of experiment, etc.) or the more dissimilar the results (results with statistical significance), the more precise the results or conclusions will be to your audience.
What to generally avoid:
This link opens in a new windowDepth describes how much of a subject is discussed, or "covered" by the source. Not each of your sources needs to fully detail or dive into the topic, but in total all of your sources should leave your reader with a deep understanding of the main subject or issue.
What to avoid:
Time to Practice!
This link opens in a new windowBreadth refers to how much a source contextualizes a topic for your reader. Adequate breadth provides your reader with some orientation to the topic, and this can take the form of overviews, historical contexts, or discussion of related issues or phenomena. Not each of your sources needs to widely contextualize a topic, but in total all of your sources should leave your reader with a wide background to situate your main conclusion or claim.
What to avoid:
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Arguments and claims should be arrived at through a critical synthesis and analysis of evidence. Assumptions made should be reasonable to your reader. The ideas and arguments advanced should more or less be in line with other works you or your reader has read on the same topic. The more radically an author departs from the views of others in the same field, the more carefully and critically you should scrutinize their ideas.
What to generally avoid:
This link opens in a new windowWhile some sources are primarily informative and others are more opinion-driven, almost all sources reflect a certain perspective (and along with it some degree of bias). This perspective influences what information the creator includes or excludes and how they present that information. Rather than looking for sources that are completely free of any bias, recognize that most sources have some degree of bias.
But some sources will present more bias than others. It is up to you to decide how much of a bias is present and if it is still a worthwhile source. If you suspect a source contains too much bias or an agenda, verify its evidence by reading laterally and looking at other sources, including ones that may present a different perspective that is still well supported by evidence.
What to generally avoid:
Time to practice!
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