Purpose: This OWL offers criteria for evaluating sources of information that you have found in the Library or on the Internet. It shows you how to determine accuracy and reliability of information and whether it is suitable for your research project.

Objectives: When you have successfully completed this OWL, you will be able to

• Understand and explain why it is important to evaluate research sources
• Discuss several criteria for evaluating sources in general and apply appropriate criteria to evaluate selected sources for specified purposes
• Understand and explain key differences among scholarly, substantive/non-specialist, and popular publications
• Determine whether representative publications are scholarly, substantive/non-specialist, or popular by applying appropriate criteria
• Discuss several criteria and methods for evaluating sources from the World Wide Web
• Apply appropriate evaluation criteria to sample Websites

Contents:

• General Criteria
• Scholarly or Popular?
• Primary or Secondary?
• Evaluating Webpages

Exercises

Quiz

Handouts:

• Scholarly or Popular? (Chart)
• Worksheet for Evaluating Information from the Web