English 302: B12
George Mason University

Spring 2010

Evaluate five sources using the the following criteria:

• Relevance: Is the article on topic? Does it contain enough useful information?
  
  
• Currency: Is the source recent and current? Has it been superseded by more recent information? In some fields (Computer Science, for example) sources can be out-of-date in a matter of months.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?
  
  
• Audience: Who is the intended audience for this source? A peer-reviewed article, for example, is usually intended for experts in the field, and is generally very technical.
  
  
• Accuracy: 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: Does the source provide concrete, specific, representative examples? If the source uses statistics: 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 For example, an out-of-date source might be used to give historical context.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.

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

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