Evaluating Credible Sources

Why is using reliable sources important?

• To clarify your understanding of the topic.

• To find other people who think like you do.

• So you can be sure you are providing the whole truth.

• To prove that you're right and everyone who disagrees with you is wrong.

Why should you figure out if a source is reliable?

• To know how many people will believe it.

• To see how to use it in your writing.

• Because your teacher said so.

• To see if you should use it in your writing.

Identify which one measures the reliability of a source:

• If the author is a well known blogger.

• If the author is an expert on the topic.

• If the article is published on Wikipedia.

• If the author is unknown, but the publication is shared on social media a lot.

What lowers an author's reliability?

• If they are trying to persuade or convince the audience.

• If they are writing to inform the audience.

• If they are writing to educate the audience.

• If they present both sides of the issue.

Which domain suffix should you look for if you were looking for scholarly sources?

• .gov

• .com

• .edu

• .net

• .org

Is the date that something was published important?

• Yes. Sometimes newer sources correct misinformation from earlier sources.

• Yes. Sometimes, interpretations of sources in newer sources provide more clarity than the original source.

• No. Anything published online has already been fact checked and corrected.

• No. If it was published at some point, it's right forever.

Why isn't your opinion in your essay considered to be evidence or a reliable source?

• You are not an expert in any topic.

• Your opinions, without the support of facts, are biased.

• Your opinion, disguised as facts in your essay, is often just plagiarized from somewhere else.

• Your opinions need to be substantiated by credible sources.

Meagan has to write an essay on the mental health of middle and high school students. Which would be the MOST CREDIBLE source for her to use?

• CNN News broadcast about the mental health of adults.

• middle school teacher's Tik Tok video about how crazy her students are acting.

• well-researched New York Times article about the mental health of students

• All of the above

Kayden must complete a research project about current events in his Social Studies class. His mother prints an article from an online encyclopedia that was written in 2011. Is the article a credible source? Choose the BEST answer.

• Yes because it comes from an encyclopedia.

• No because it came from the internet.

• Yes because it was written in the last 15 years.

• No because the information is not current.

Mrs. Walker is going to assign her students a project about weather patterns. She is going to give them sources to research. Which would NOT be a credible source.

• The link to a podcast produced by a dentist who studies the weather in his spare time.

• An article written by a trained weather scientist that has been studying weather patterns for 25 years.

• A link to a video about changing weather patterns produced by the National Weather Service.

• A chart made by scientists from a university that lists weather patterns.