2.2 Evaluating Information Sources

JavaScript isn't enabled in your browser, so this file can't be opened. Enable and reload.

WELCOME to your MCNY research tutorials! Here, you will be asked to engage with resources and tools and answer questions to help facilitate your understanding of advanced research.

Once you’ve found results for your research that look interesting, you need to evaluate them. You can get information from many sources, but that does not mean that the information is accurate or reliable. To help you make this decision, ask yourself the following questions:

Who, what, when, where, why, and how?

In this series of videos you will be introduced to each of these questions and given some questions to answer. By the end of this tutorial, you will have all of the tools you need to begin evaluating sources.

Email *

TECHNICAL NOTE: At certain points, you will have to copy links provided and paste them into a search engine (e.g. Google) to access the resources indicated.

If you are completing this for a class, please provide your first and last name so that you can receive credit for completing the tutorial.

After watching the MCNY video tutorial below, please answer the questions that follows. (Video credit: MCNYLibrary 1 & Cotterman, B. (2015). Evaluating information sources: Who [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/U0DmZF5V0Y4)

Whose authority would you rely on least if you were researching the public health impact of climate change on low-income communities in the South Pacific? *

Dr. David Damroch, Director of The World Literature Institute and Head of the Comparative Literature Department at Harvard University

A World Health Organization report

A Wikipedia article

Eve Sox, an asthma patient and long-time resident of the Solomon Islands, one of thirteen Pacific Island Countries

Mike Ives, journalist for The New York Times

Dr. Hilary Bambrick, Head of the School of Public Health and Social Work at Queensland University of Technology

If you find a source on your topic that is not relevant to your research focus, your should still find a way of using it in your project so as not to waste any more time searching for sources. *

True

False

Which of the following is NOT a good way to check the accuracy of a source you have found? *

Search for other sources to verify the information in a source.

Search for the author to see what else they have written.

Ask your professor or a librarian for help.

Trust the article because you found it in a database.

After watching the MCNY video tutorial below, please answer the question that follows. (Video credit: MCNYLibrary 1 & Cotterman, B. (2015). Evaluating information sources: When [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/U0DmZF5V0Y4)

Say an earthquake happened yesterday in California. Which of the following is a good source of information source for such a current event? Check all that apply. *

Local newspaper

A peer-reviewed article

Fema strategic planning website

Census information

A book about earthquakes and global warming

Required

Check all the sources that are academic or professional. You can use the titles and url links as clues. To get a beeter look at the source, copy its url link and paste it into a browser. *

Ecology and Environment, Inc. (http://www.ene.com)

Small Business Administration (https://www.sba.gov)

Journal of Tropical Ecology (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of- tropical-ecology)

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (https://www.unisdr.org)

Hunker (https://www.hunker.com)

Required

Use YourLogicalFallacyIs.com to help you answer this question. One of the sources of information you find during your research claims that climate change is a hoax, and be believes this because a medical doctor he knows says that climate change is a hoax. Which logical fallacy is this? *

Appeal to authority

Slippery slope

No true Scotsman

Strawman

Again, use YourLogicalFallacyIs.com to help you answer this question. Another source of information claims that a prominent scientist who studies climate change should not be listened to because he has had multiple affairs. Which logical fallacy is this? *

Slippery slope

Ad hominem

Strawman

Burden of proof

Remember, at MCNY, you have many resources to support you in completing your research projects including librarians, writing specialists, math specialists, and student mentors. You can also book a research consultation with a reference librarian for more one-on-one help and contact the Learning Enhancement Center (LEC) directly for a one-on-one writing session.

Submit

Clear form

Never submit passwords through Google Forms.

This content is neither created nor endorsed by Google. Report Abuse - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy

Forms