Finding and Evaluating Resources: Evaluate

Information is widely available these days, from Google to Wikipedia to Twitter.  However, just because the information is available doesn't mean it is reliable or useful to your research needs.  In order to  be a good researcher, it's important to critically evaluate any information you find and to make sure you find useful books, article, websites, etc.  Below are some reasons its important to evaluate what you find.

• Anyone can write or publish an article or webpage -- Does it sound reasonable?  Are they clearly trying to push an agenda or sell you something?
• Can't fact check every website! -- Sources that might be relevant for one purpose might not be for another.
• Not all sources are created equally! -- It's important and necessary to be able to filter through your results to find the ones that best answer your question.

This guide will help you evaluate resources, both print and online, that you come across during your research.  Critically evaluating resources is a skill that will help you write the best college papers possible.

UNC Writing Center tutorial on how to evaluate your sources.