LibGuides: Reconstruction Research: Evaluate Your Sources

Evaluate Your Sources

Evaluate your sources

As you do your research, it may be difficult to find the sources that best fit, so it is important to evaluate your sources based on your information needs. Sometimes you will need a source with the most current up-to-date information available, and other times you will not. Or you may need to evaluate your need for an objective versus bias perspective.

When doing historical research, it is important to verify credibility. Unfortunately, the discussion of the historical significance of the Civil War and Reconstruction is still marred by modern controversy. So be sure that you are referencing credible sources.

The information on their websites MAY be good information, BUT if you cannot verify the author's or website's credibility, you cannot use it as a source for your research.
You CAN use it as a TOOL. Use the outside sources they link to. Collect names and keywords that can be used to search elsewhere.

Examine the source and ask yourself these 4 questions:

What are you looking for?
Is this information up-to-date?
Who is providing this information?
What is the purpose?

The interactive quiz below will help you evaluate any source, but is best suited for website evaluations.

SIFT
You can also follow the 4 Moves of the SIFT method, developed by Mike Caulfield. Stop and consider the point of view and credibility of the site, investigate the source (see lateral reading below), find other sources with this same information, and trace the claims they make. Click this link for more detailed information.

Evaluate Your Sources: Interactive Quiz

CRAAP Test
You may also consider using the CRAAP Test, to consider Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose.

Read Laterally

But also read laterally, for a more thorough evaluation:

Look beyond the original source to investigate claims, authors, and organizations.

Open a new tab on your browser

Google the name of the organization or author in question
Did anything come up of interest?
Any red flags?
Do a quick Wikipedia search.
Or check claims against other fact-checking resources.

Sort Fact from Fiction with Lateral Reading Video
"Lateral reading is a powerful digital literacy strategy to combat fake news. Based on research with professional fact checkers, the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum from the Stanford History Education Group provides resources to help students become better consumers of digital information."
Check Yourself With Lateral Reading: Crash Course Video
"Look to your left. Look to your right. Look at this video. Today, John Green is going to teach you how to read laterally, using multiple tabs in your browser to look stuff up and fact check as you read. Real-time fact-checking can help you figure out what's real and what's not on the internet."
Video Lesson from Ms. Bredberg
Video mini-lesson from Ms. Bredberg about lateral reading and expanding your perspective.

Wikipedia

Note about Wikipedia

Wikipedia is often the boogeyman of research, but it is not all bad.

Becuase Wikipedia is sourced by anonymous editors, it can not be used as a source. BUT it can be used as a tool.

Use Wikipedia to:

Get a better understanding of a concept of topic. You might be able to collect key terms or concepts that you can use/verify in your research.
Use the citations! Wikipedia articles often link to other sources. Use the links at the bottom of an article to find more credible sources.