Sources and Credibility

What is a source?

• a person who can tell me about the fight at lunch

• a search engine like google

• a webpage with information about a particular topic

• a newspaper

• technology devices

What is credibility?

• how much you can buy with a pre-paid credit card

• level of how believable, trustworthy, or reliable something is

• something that all primary sources have

• something that all secondary sources have

• all sources you look at must be evaluated for this

When identifying the author of a source,

• ask yourself about his / her reputation

• look at his / her qualifications

• if he / she is a child, don't use this source

• look at the circumstances of the source's creation

• look for signs of bias, or stereotyping

A secondary source is

• what you encounter second

• not credible

• created by someone who didn't live through the event or time period in question

• written by someone who was a witness

• a newspaper

An example of a primary source is

• a diary

• reference material

• someone's personal memoirs

• a photograph

• a History textbook

A primary source is

• always created some time after the event

• created by a witness to the event described

• the best way to examine the bigger picture

• always the best type of source to use

• written by someone who was not there

If a source is credible, that means

• it is not a good source to use in writing a report on the topic.

• The author probably has a good reputation for knowledge level.

• It is very believable

• It is very biased

How do you determine credibility?

• Evaluate if it is more facts or more opinions

• Ask if it agrees / disagrees with other sources available

• Ask questions about the author/creator of the source

• Determine whether primary or secondary (if primary it is credible)

Which is a credible source generally?

• something published / made available by Library of Congress

• something that was published on John's Hopkins University website

• something on wikipedia

• something published in a blog that expresses opinions