Gathering and organizing material

3. Evaluation of the Materials

The main task at this stage of preparation should be evaluating your sources and recording them. In order to gather meaningful data we need to assume a critical approach to all sources, but especially the internet.

You will be able to find many resources helping you with material evaluation, especially online, so here we will only look at the most important issues.

  1. Author and his/her credentials
    First of all, let us consider if the author is knowledgeable about the subject in which we are interested. Has he/she written anything about the topic before? Where did he/she get information? Look for the author’s occupation, education, and other publications (documentation). Books usually contain the author’s credentials just inside the cover, either at the front or back. Articles and web pages may not display any credentials. If web pages do show credentials, they will be placed at the top or bottom of the page.

  2. Objectivity
    Is the author truly objective in his/her writing or is he/she biased? Is there an agenda? Does the author discuss opposite or different points of view or does he/she limit his/her writing to only one? Sometimes it is very difficult to tell if the author is truly objective unless you read his/her other work. On websites there is often an “About Us” section where you can find out if the author or group has any particular agenda.

  3. Accuracy and coverage
    Is the information free from error? Has the work been reviewed for publication and fact-checked? By whom? Does it cover all the angles of the topic?

  4. Time of publication
    When was the information produced or published? Is it still relevant? Sometimes your instructor will require you to use sources with a specific date range, while other times you may have to make a decision yourself. Remember that different subject areas may call for different date ranges. For instance, when you talk about computer science, an article written a year ago may be too old. In humanities, however, sometimes a source from 30 or 40 years ago may still be relevant.