1 NAME_________________________________ LIBRARY ORIENTATION--DAY EIGHT CRITICAL EVALUATION OF SOURCES “All researchers, students as well as professional scholars, need to assess the quality of any work scrupulously before using it... In reading and evaluating potential sources, you should not assume that something is truthful or trustworthy just because it appears in print or is on the Internet.”—from the 6 th ed. of the MLA Handbook Critically evaluating sources can be difficult and frustrating— but it is an essential part of the research process.

2 WHY IS THE CRITICAL EVALUATION OF FREE- WEB SOURCES ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT? There is no one in charge of controlling what’s out there on free-web sites. Anyone can put anything on a web page. You may locate great information that is hard to find elsewhere—but the search results screen that links you to that great information may also link you to inaccurate and misleading information. Most print material must go through a quality check (editing)— this is not true for much of what is found on free-web sites. Important source information that is usually easily found in a book is often impossible to find on a free-web site. That information plays a very important role in “critically evaluating” a source. Should you use a source if you don’t know who wrote it, who published it, why it was written, when it was written, or what sources were used to write it? Or should you look for a different source?

3 WHO WROTE THIS? The person who wrote that free-web page you’re considering using may be an expert in that area— or may be a college student with too much free time on his hands who made it all up just for fun. Look for About or Biography. Strip back the URL a section at a time to see if the author’s name can be found in another section of the web site. Contact Us could be used to questions about the author.

4 WHO PUBLISHED THIS? Knowing who the sponsoring organization is may give an indication of accuracy, bias, purpose, etc. Look for About This Site or a similar link. Look at the domain type (.edu,.gov, etc.).

5 WHY WAS THIS WRITTEN? Knowing the purpose (to entertain, to persuade, to inform... ) helps you determine a particular site’s appropriateness as a research source. You may choose to use a biased site—but you need to know that’s what you have. Look for About, Mission, Purpose, Philosophy, or similar links. Look at the wording (you may be able to identify a biased site just by the tone and language used).

6 WHEN WAS THIS WRITTEN? Is this always important? That depends on your topic. Civil War facts—not so much. Latest treatment of a disease—absolutely! And statistics? They’re meaningless without a date (what does a population figure tell you about a city if you don’t know the year??). Look for words like copyright, updated, revised, or modified.

7 HOW ACCURATE IS THIS? How can you tell if you don’t know much about the subject? That can be difficult—but there are certain things you can look for that will help you decide about the accuracy of a source. Look at the accuracy of the spelling and grammar used on the web page. Look for a list of sources the author used. Compare what you have found in other sources or what you already know about the subject with what’s written in this source.

8 COMMON ERRORS IN NOODLETOOLS Choosing the wrong citation type. Not remembering to change Print to Database when the article is one found in a database. Trying to fill in boxes for which you don’t have the source information. Confusing page numbers with number of pages. The length of an article (number of pages) is NEVER entered in NoodleTools. Submitting a citation without checking the yellow triangles or ignoring those suggestions when corrections DO need to be made. After submitting a citation, not checking the “view live web page” link to make sure the URL does work. If you have errors that need to be corrected, click on Edit (to the right of the citation on the Works Cited page).