When you find a new source of information (such as a web page, a news story, a scholarly journal article, or a book), ask yourself the following questions about the source:
Who? |
Who is the author, editor, or creator? Is the author qualified to write about this topic? |
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? |
When? |
When was this source published? Is the information up-to-date? |
Where? |
Where did you find the source? A library database? A website? For websites, what is the URL ending? For example, .com? .gov? .org? .edu? |
Why? |
What was the goal of the author or publisher? Is there bias? |
How? |
How did the author gather data and information? Did the author include citations? Did the author derive reasonable conclusions from the research? |
The answers to these questions will help you to answer the big picture questions about the source:
Take a look at each of the websites listed below. As you examine each website, consider the following questions: