Questions to Ask When Evaluating the Sources You Find:
| The 5 Ws | The Surface-Level Questions | The Deeper Questions |
|
Who? |
Who is the author, editor, or creator? Is the author qualified to write about this topic? |
What makes them qualified? First-hand experience? An advanced degree? |
|
What? |
What type of document is it? For example, is it a newspaper article? A blog? A government website? A scholarly article? A book? What is it about? |
Is the source appropriate for the type of research you are doing? Is it relevant to your research? |
|
When? |
When was this source published? |
Is the publication date appropriate for the type of research you are doing? |
|
Where? |
Where did the authors get their information from? Are citations provided? |
Did the authors cite sources that are credible? |
|
Why? |
What was the goal of the author or publisher? Who is the intended audience? |
Is the content intended for a scholarly audience, for the general public, for school children, etc.? |
Many of these questions will NOT (a) be easy to find answers to and (b) tell you that the source you are reading is 100% credible, but they are still important to ask. Digging into a source itself and finding out more about it is part of the research process.
Evaluating sources is an ongoing activity you will do throughout your research, and it includes evaluation of your own search process. As you search, pay attention to the keywords and phrases you are using. Are you looking for information that will only confirm what you already suspect, or are you looking for possibly contradictory or opposing information as well? Do you have any 'go-to' sources that you use to find information? Are you using a variety of search tools and looking for different points of view?
Citations:
Give credit to the work of others that you have used, i.e. avoiding plagiarism
Plagiarism is using the words, information, or ideas of another without properly documenting them. The WPI Academic Honesty Policy clearly specifies that plagiarism is an act of academic dishonesty.
Allow others to find this information.
Increase the credibility of your work.
Show what kinds of information you are using.
Allow you, the writer, to participate in the scholarly conversation by demonstrating how your work builds upon, questions, confirms, and comments upon the work of others.
An in-text citation is a brief notation within the text of your paper or presentation, which alerts the reader that a particular source was used here.
The full citation provides all necessary details about that source so that a future reader will be able to find the source.
Chicago Citation Conventions Resources
Run Time: 2:54
Key Student Learning Competencies:
Download a copy of the Chicago Citations video tutorial transcript:
Please provide feedback on this video tutorial here: http://wpi.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1KWts4lpoUJcU8l
As you search for creative works to use in your project, you may see Creative Commons licenses attached to these works. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that provides free licenses that allow the owners of creative works to share their content with the public on their terms. This nonprofit organization offers a number of licenses ranging from "Some Rights Reserved" to public domain.
CC attributions vary, therefore you must read the summary of the license to understand how to use the image, texts, videos, music etc.