Finding and Evaluating Research Sources

While going through Bitzer and Aristotle’s rhetorical theory, you must start looking up some sources you can use for your report. Perhaps you already know of some sources that you could pull from. But if you don’t have any sources in mind or don’t know how to start looking for them, that’s okay, too. We’ll talk more about strategies for conducting research in the next chapter. Right now, we want to make sure you know how to properly evaluate the sources you find when you start your research.

Popular vs Scholarly Sources

In this “information age,” when so much information is available on the Internet, it is crucial to critically search through the reams of information to select credible sources that can provide reliable data to support your ideas and convince your audience. In the era of “fake news,” deliberate misinformation, and “alternative facts,” developing the skill to evaluate the credibility of sources is critical.

Sources can be broken up into two categories: popular and scholarly. How would you define the difference between the two? Can you come up with some examples of both? Ideally, when you think of both categories, you should think of items such as those in the figure below.

Why are scholarly sources more desirable than popular sources? Is it ever a good idea to use one source type over the other in the report-writing process? Let’s look at this a little more deeply.

Watch the video below to help distinguish between the two:

Link to Original Video: tinyurl.com/poporscholarysources2

Scholarly articles published in academic journals are usually required sources in professional communication; they are also an integral part of engineering projects and technical reports. Since you are researching in a professional field and preparing for the workplace, there are many credible sources you will draw on in a professional context. How many can you list? Table #1 below lists several sources you may find helpful in researching your projects.

Table #1: Typical Research Sources for Technical Projects

Download: Typical Research Sources for Technical Projects

There are many places from which you can pull sources. However—and this is a big issue—it is essential that you critically evaluate your sources for authority, content, and purpose.

Anyone can put anything on the internet, and people with strong web and document design skills can make this information look very professional and credible, even if it isn’t. Since most research is currently done online, and many sources are available electronically, developing your critical evaluation skills is crucial to finding valid, credible evidence to support and develop your ideas. This has become so challenging that sites like List of Predatory Journals regularly update their online list of journals that subvert the peer review process and publish for profit.

When evaluating sources and presenting your research, use the questions in Table #2 to critically evaluate the material’s authority, content, and purpose.

Table #2: Evaluating the Authority, Content, and Purpose of the Information

Going through all those questions may seem like a tedious, unnecessary process, but you must consider these questions as you acquire sources for your reports. Not doing so can negatively impact your credibility as a professional.

Consider it this way: let’s say you are presenting a report to a potential client. If they find out you used sources that lack authority, are not relevant or recent, or do not serve their purpose, how will they view you? How will that affect their view of the company you work for?

Ultimately, critical thinking lies at the heart of evaluating sources. You want to be rigorous in your selection of evidence because once you use it in your paper, it will either bolster your credibility or undermine it.