Wise Scholar Module

Watch the video, then click the button to write 2-3 sentences in response to the reflection question:

Matching info priorities

When it comes to the world of information, it's important to evaluate our sources but difficult to decide how - what makes a source good or bad? Instead of reducing all information to such black and white categories, consider judging sources based on how well they match your information priorities. For a research project, you will have more scholarly priorities (like objectivity and expertise) so information from more scholarly sources (which also prioritize these things in their studies) should be a better fit for your needs. These priorities may be different from your every-day information needs (for example, subjectivity isn't a bad thing if you're looking for people's opinions on a new movie or recommendations for a good restaurant), so there may be times when a source is appropriate for one situation but not for another. 

Lateral evaluation vs deep evaluation

As you gather sources for research, you need to be able to evaluate information efficiently but also thoroughly. A good way to achieve this is by evaluating laterally first, then evaluating deeply. Lateral evaluation involves using the basic tools at your fingertips to quick fact-check and validate a source: It's as easy as Googling an article's author to find out quickly if they actually are a current professor at a scholarly institution or a newpaper headline to see if other sources are reporting similar interpretations of a recent government announcement. Laterally evaluating sources can help you quickly weed out information that is misleading or inaccurate. Then later, when you have a few sources that have passed the lateral check, you can spend time reading them more carefully to make sure they still meet your research needs.

3 SCALES

Instead of a good/bad checklist, look for clues in the information source that can tell you more about its:

• Relevance
  • How well does this source match your research priorities or information needs? Abstracts and summaries are good places to get an overview of the content.
• Expertise
  • How knowlegeble and qualified are the creators of this source? Check About pages or Author/Publisher bios to learn more about the authors and organizations producing the information.
• Bias
  • How much might this source be influenced by blindspots in coverage or other motives besides simply informing readers? Keep an eye out for major factors or alternative perspectives left out of the conversation, as well as writing language that is more emotional than logical.

Research Tip: Many scholarly articles include sections designed to help you evaluate their studies more easily - for example, the Abstract is a short paragraph usually included at the beginning of the article to give a short summary of what it is about. Another useful section to look for is Limitations, where the article's authors discuss what they didn't look at or might have gotten wrong (this is an important way that scholars practice transparency and honest reporting). Finally, in any source, it's always good to look for a bibliography - you can tell at a glance that a source is well-supported when they have a robust and scholarly works cited list.