C25. Teach It: Evaluating Sources
A.
Chapter Objectives
The purpose of this chapter is to provide you with teaching materials to guide students to practice the prewriting techniques described in Chapter 25 of How Writing
Works.
We have included in-class
discussion questions, activities, and writing exercises that will help students to develop skill in prewriting, while also reinforcing the key concepts
introduced in Part 1.
Chapters
in Part 4 are best assigned when students are working on a project from Part 1 or Part 2. Accordingly, we have included activities that you can use with any of the chapter
projects. Even after students have read this chapter, you might return to some of these activities when students are in the early stages of a project.
You can also use these materials
to create lesson
plans. You might spend a whole class session
on prewriting early
in the course, using multiple
activities in this chapter. Start by choosing
one or two discussion questions from B. Talk About It: Discussion Questions, an activity from C. Try It Out: In-Class Exercises, and a writing
activity from
D. Write About
It: Writing Prompts. Then,
you can layer in additional activities if you still have time. You can also assign the activities in part D for homework.
Later in the semester, you might use just one or two of these activities in a lesson
devoted to working on a project.
B. Talk About It: Discussion
Questions
Here you will find questions that you can use to prompt discussion about this chapter
in class. Keep in mind that you do not need to use all of
these questions; you can choose the ones that reflect your teaching objectives and style. For a balanced
lesson plan, be sure to leave time in each class session
to move on to the in-class exercises and writing exercises included
here.
We’ve started with student-centered questions, which help you to get students’ attention
by connecting the topic to students’ own interests and experiences. Then, we’ve provided concept-
and text- oriented questions that help you to direct
students’ attention toward the concepts and texts featured
in the chapter.
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346 C25.
Teach It: Evaluating Sources
Student-Centered Questions
1. Students’ writing
experiences: Think of the last writing assignment you did for a class. What kinds of sources did you use? Where did you find them? What steps did you take to evaluate
those sources? Do you think, in retrospect, that some of the sources
might not have been as credible
as you might like, after reading Chapter 25?
Note: The purpose
of these questions
is to guide students to think about themselves as already
familiar with using
sources. Note down students’ answers on the board. Then, ask students to reflect on why it is important to take the time to evaluate sources.
2.
Students’ reading experiences: Think of the last document you read outside of class. What genre was it (a textbook, a newspaper article, a blog post)? What kinds of sources did it use? Would you say those sources
were credible and authoritative? If not, does it make you rethink
what you read?
Note: The purpose
of this question is to draw on students’ experience as readers and to encourage them to view what they read a bit more critically. Note students’ answers on the board.
Then, ask students to consider which kinds of writing
(from the types students had read recently) seemed to use the most credible sources
and why.
Concept-Centered Questions
Credibility and authority: What sorts of strategies can you use to determine the credibility and authority of a source?
What if the source
is a website? Can you describe
the steps that you would take to figure
out how credible a source is, even an online source?
C.
Try It Out: In-Class
Exercises
1. Find a number of genres
written on the same topic, and provide copies for your students
(or have them examine them online) (e.g., textbook, newspaper article,
blog post, response
in an online forum, op-ed, government report,
scholarly book). If you are using the edition of How Writing Works
with readings, you could choose
one of
C25. Teach It: Evaluating Sources 347
the topics from the alternate table
of contents and ask students
to examine
the readings for that topic.
Ask students to rank the sources from most to least credible and explain how they made their rankings.
2. Ask students
to find examples
of text that suit the following categories: written by a scholar
for other scholars, written for students, written by a scholar
or professor for nonscholars, and written by a scholar
outside his or her area of expertise. Then, ask them to use the Genre Toolkit questions to examine each text:
a. What is it?
b. Who reads it?
c.
What is it for?
Students can use this table to organize their answers.
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Written by
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Written by a
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Written by a
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Written by
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a scholar
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scholar for
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scholar for
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a scholar
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for other
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students
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nonscholars
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outside his
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scholars
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or her
area
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of expertise
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What is it?
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Who reads
it?
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What’s it for?
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348 C25.
Teach It: Evaluating Sources
Note: You can point out that the Genre Toolkit
questions can help students to evaluate
sources. The most credible sources
will be written by scholars
for other scholars,
usually in the form of a book or article. The purpose
of such genres is to share knowledge based on research
(as opposed to the purposes
of teaching, entertaining, etc.).
3. Provide students with a sample of the genre they will be producing for their next writing
project. Ask each group to look up two of the sources used in that genre, and then to answer the following questions for the source:
a.
Who wrote it?
b.
Has it been vetted?
c.
How objective
is it?
Note:
To wrap up, ask students to apply what they have learned from this exercise
to their own writing projects. What kinds of sources will they need to find? How will they be able to tell if they are credible?
D.
Write About It: Writing
Prompts
Here we have provided
ideas for writing
prompts that you can assign in class, for homework, or as online
exercises. These are writing activities that can serve as prewriting for the chapter
project or as stages in writing the chapter
project.
Ideally, students should practice doing some writing
for every class session
(either in class or as homework), but you do not need to assign all three types of writing
for every session.
Depending
on your approach
to grading, you may or may not assign a grade to these kinds of assignments. Some prefer to award points that go toward
class participation and attendance; others consider these materials as part of the grade for the final project; still others will set aside a certain percentage of the course grade for in-class activities and homework.
In general, though,
you should award points for completing these kinds of assignments but do not need to assign
a letter
grade or give extensive comments.
C25. Teach It: Evaluating Sources 349
In Class
1. Analysis (when students
have begun to conduct research
for a writing project): Write a short
(two- or three-paragraph) analysis of two sources
you have found
for your project.
Is your source credible?
How do you know? You can use these three questions to help you:
a.
Who wrote it?
b.
Has it been vetted?
c.
How objective
is it?
2. Comparison: Find a newspaper or magazine article
on a topic that interests you or a topic related to your current
writing project. Then, find a scholarly
book or article on the same topic.
Write a short (two- or three-paragraph) comparison of these two sources.
What differences do you notice between them? You can use the three questions
to help you: Who wrote it? Has it been vetted? How objective is it?
Take Home
1. Minitutorial: Write a short tutorial
for first-year students at your college, describing how they can locate and evaluate scholarly articles using your library’s website. Your tutorial should
provide instructions that any student
could follow to log into the website, search for an article,
and then evaluate that article.
2. Review: Choose
a book on Amazon.com that has been written
by someone using professional credentials (MD, PhD, etc.) for a public, nonscholarly audience (try searching
self-help and how-to
books, for example). Using Amazon’s “Look inside” feature,
examine the book using the strategies outlined in Chapter 25, especially the three questions: Who wrote it? Has it been vetted?
How objective is it? Then, write a short review that you might post on Amazon.com. How credible
and authoritative is the book?
350 C25.
Teach It: Evaluating Sources
Online
1.
Course discussion forum: Post a list of four sources you have found for your current
writing project, with links to the library
page for your source.
Describe why you think each source is credible and authoritative. Then, comment
on at least two of your classmates’ posts. Have they chosen credible and authoritative sources for their project? Do you think they could find more credible sources?
2.
Reflection letter: Write a short letter to your instructor in which you reflect
on how you evaluated
sources for your last project
in this course. What strategies did you use to make sure the sources you found for your project were credible
and authoritative? How did the genre prompt
you to choose what sources to use? Did any of the sources you thought
would be credible turn out to be less credible upon closer examination?
Note:
Assign this activity
at the end of the unit as a way for students to reflect on the assignment and their own writing process.
E.
Media Suggestions
1. Online tutorials. Many college libraries have online tutorials that show students how to evaluate
sources. If your college has such resources, be sure to point them out and ask students
to view them. If not, you can ask your students
to search for tutorials on evaluating sources from other college
libraries. Then, they can post the best ones to the course management system,
or you can screen them in class.
2. Evaluating other kinds of sources. Outside of college, students will find other situations where they will need to evaluate information. For example, many people
now go online to search for health advice and information. Do the same considerations that apply to academic sources apply to these cases?
You can find online tutorials on evaluating health information from government sources, such as the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. You might find similar tutorials
about evaluating financial advice, charities, and so on. Ask your students
to view some of these tutorials and then compare the criteria used to the criteria
they use to evaluate academic sources. You can point out that what they are learning
about sources in this course applies to other situations they will encounter, encouraging them to develop critical
thinking skills.
C25. Teach It: Evaluating Sources 351
F.
Intercultural Teaching Tips
Your students
will have different experiences working with sources. Many will be used to writing about a single-source text or set of texts provided
by an instructor (often a literary
source such as a novel or short story). Those who have been asked to write research
papers will probably have done so in a high school setting,
where the range of sources available in the library
is more limited. Some might have benefited from well-stocked libraries, but usually
these sources would be reference books, textbooks, and other books written for a more general audience (not an audience
of researchers). Others may come from school districts
where libraries were poorly
funded and may have had little access
to any type of research. Regardless, very few of your students will have had experiences with the wealth of sources
available through a college library,
especially journal articles
and academic books (as opposed
to books written for a more general
audience or
“reference”-type books). In general, then, you can assume that all students will be new to working
with your particular library system—its interface, set of sources,
and protocols for finding and checking
out materials.
Further, research shows
that most students
continue to struggle with evaluating sources throughout their undergraduate careers. For example, they may cite popular books in a research paper or rely heavily on Internet
sources that do not represent
peer-reviewed, scholarly information. Thus, everyone in your class will benefit
from more
practice evaluating sources.
Remember
that many of your students
may be intimidated the first time they visit the campus
library or the library website
to search for sources.
If your library provides
instructional sessions or tours, it can be a good idea to schedule
one for your class.
Often, this type of activity works best when students
have already begun work on a research project since they can use their time to find sources
suitable for their projects.
352 C25.
Teach It: Evaluating Sources
G.
Class Handouts
Handout: Evaluation Sources Worksheet
This handout is best to use when students have begun to work on a research genre. They should have a topic in mind already,
and they should have been introduced to finding these kinds of sources at your college library.
C25. Teach It: Evaluating Sources 353
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Evaluating Sources
Worksheet
Your Name:
Using our library website, locate an example of each of these
types of sources related to the topic
of your current project. List the full title,
author, and publication information for each source. Then,
answer the three
questions listed in the third column to help you evaluate your source.
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Source type
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Publication information
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Questions
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Scholarly book
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Who wrote
it?
Has it been vetted?
How objective is it?
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Popular book
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Who wrote
it?
Has it been vetted?
How objective is it?
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354 C25.
Teach It: Evaluating Sources
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An online journal article
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Who wrote
it?
Has it been vetted?
How objective is it?
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A print
journal article
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Who wrote
it?
Has it been vetted?
How objective is it?
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A magazine article
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Who wrote
it?
Has it been vetted?
How objective is it?
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