Your assignment probably has requirements for specific types of sources.  You may have been given a "recipe" for a certain number of each category of source.

For any type of source, we'll want to ensure that they are credible.  For web sites in particular, we'll want to ensure we don't use inaccurate or bogus web sites as sources.

In many cases, you may be asked to find scholarly journal articles. We know scholarly journal articles are a little scary to read!  😱 They can be long and technical.  Some tips on this page can make this process easier.

To start, here are some tools you can download to help you evaluate the credibility of sources you find and start mining them for information:

What are Scholarly Articles Video? (From Carnegie Vincent)

In ENGL classes, we often talk about popular, scholarly, and trade articles.  Check out the guide below for a quick breakdown of the characteristics of these types of sources.  

SELF-CHECK ACTIVITY: Which of the following sources is scholarly, professional, or popular?  What are 3 reasons you categorized each article as scholarly, trade, or popular? (Hint! Refer to "Scholarly vs. Trade vs. Popular" handout.)

• Facebook use between college resident advisors' and their residents:  A mixed methods approach
• Students morph into crisis managers
• The evolving role of RAs

Questions to consider when evaluating websites:

• Purpose – Look for an “About this site” link/section.  Is the purpose of the website to solicit something?  Do you see adds that could suggest bias?  Could they have sponsored the research?

• Accuracy – Do you see citations or works cited listed?  Is there evidence to back up claims or is the information opinion based?  Are there spelling/grammatical errors?

• Authority: Author – Is there an individual credited for the website?  Who are they?  What are their credentials?

• Authority: Publisher – Who runs this website?  How does the site pay for its existence?

• Relevance – Does this information make sense for your research?  Does the intended audience match your purposes?

• Currency – Look for a latest revision or last updated date/year listed.

**TIP:  Conduct perimeter scans (look along the edges – top, bottom, sides – of the website) to quickly find the answers to these questions and evaluate the information!

Expert Tip:

Use Google's site command to search specific websites and domains. 

• Search only educational institutions' websites use site:.edu
  • texting while driving site:.edu
• Search only government websites use site:.gov
  • organic farming site:.gov
• Search a specific website use the site's URL
  • driverless cars site:nytimes.com

Check out the video below to learn how finding good sources for a paper is similar to finding good ingredients for a sandwich!