English Composition

There isn't a checklist that determines if information is credible, trustworthy, or even appropriate for your research. Start with asking questions to determine how well a source fits your needs. Remember that the information needs to be situated in the context of your inquiry research question. 

Reminder: Always review the assignment for any source requirements.

• How will you use this source in your research assignment?
• What value does this source add to your research assignment?
• Does the information relate to your research question and/or answer some aspect of it?

The Evaluating Sources for Credibility video (3:22 minutes) introduces the concept of evaluating information to determine a source's credibility.

• Watch Evaluating Sources for Credibility video
• Download Evaluate Sources Worksheet (PDF link)
• Complete worksheet once you have found a potential source for your research assignment

Scholarly (also called academic) articles are very different from news, magazine, and trade articles. The Anatomy of a Scholarly Article video (3:12 minutes) provides strategies for reading scholary articles. The Reading Scholarly Articles handouts (Word file links) illustrate the structure of a scholarly article within different disciplines. If you decide the article you've found is relevant to your research question then carefully read each section of the article and take notes.