Dr. Dean Taciuch
George Mason University

Fall 2008

English 302:H17

Evaluate five sources using the the following criteria:

• Currency: Is the source recent and current? Has it been superceded by more recent information? In some fields (Computer Science, for example) sources can be out-of-date in a matter of months.
• Authority: What are the author's credentials? If there is no author, what is the authority of the publisher?
• Reliability: Do other sources confirm the information? Are there factual errors?
• Bias: Assume all sources have some degree of bias. Possible sources of bias include observational, professional, methodological, theoretical, political, and financial. Bias does not necessarily invalidate a source (although it can if it leads the researcher to invalid conclusions).
• Logic: Identify both deductive and inductive arguments in the source, and examine them. Are the deductive arguments properly constructed? Are the premises justified? Are inductive arguments supported by concrete, specific, representative examples? Statistics are often used in inductive arguments: are the samples large enough? Are they representative?
• Usefulness: This is a catch-all category. How might the source be used in your research? For example, an out-of-date source might be used to give historical context.

Each annotation should be 1-2 paragraphs, typed and double spaced. Use the following format:

Citation (any appropriate style). The sources should be presented in alphabetical order by author's last name.

Evaluation. The evaluations should be 1-2 ¶s each, doublespaced. You should evaluate each source according to several of the criteria above; you do not need to use all of the criteria for each source—use the criteria you feel are relevant.

Sample Citation (MLA) and Evaluation

The grade will be based primarily on the evaluation (85%), secondarily on the citation format (15%).

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