Analyze sources
How to Critically Analyze Information Sources
A guide to the critical questions you should ask when you consider the appropriateness of a particular book, article, media resource, or Web site for your research.
Ask yourself...
When you find a citation, you'll need to "read" it. Ask yourself: What kind of resource is it? What is the format? It might be an essay in a book, another kind of article (such as a book review, scholarly article, exhibition review, news article), a book, a blog post, etc. And what does that tell you about the validity of the content, the point of view of the author, and whether or not it's worthwhile to hunt down the resource?
What is this, for instance:
, "On Alexander Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War" Journal of Southern History 77.1 (Feb. 2011): p172.
Ask yourself...
When you find a citation, you'll need to "read" it. Ask yourself: What kind of resource is it? What is the format? It might be an essay in a book, another kind of article (such as a book review, scholarly article, exhibition review, news article), a book, a blog post, etc. And what does that tell you about the validity of the content, the point of view of the author, and whether or not it's worthwhile to hunt down the resource?
What is this, for instance:
, "On Alexander Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War" Journal of Southern History 77.1 (Feb. 2011): p172.
Evaluate sources
How to Identify Scholarly Journal Articles
This segment discusses how to recognize and find scholarly journal articles.
How to Identify Scholarly Journal Articles
This segment discusses how to recognize and find scholarly journal articles.
Scholarly or Not?
Wondering how to tell if the article you're reading is from a scholarly journal?
First: watch the video, left. If you still don't know, take a look at:
Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-Scholarly Periodicals: A Checklist of Criteria
It will show you how to evaluate periodicals by looking at their format, intended audience, and appearance.