Exercises — Week 16: Week 16 — Evaluating Sources
2 hands-on tasks. Do them in order; each one feeds the Canvas item it names.
35 min · analysis
1. Source Evaluation Matrix
- Find four sources on one topic: a news article, a peer-reviewed abstract, a government report, and a blog post.
- Evaluate each source on four dimensions: accuracy (how is it verified?), credibility (what qualifies the author?), currency (when was it published?), and relevance (how directly does it support a specific claim?).
- Write two sentences explaining which two sources you would use in an argument and why the other two are weaker.
Turn in / bring: Four-row evaluation matrix with two-sentence justification.
30 min · research
2. Footnote Chain
- Start with one specific claim in a secondary source.
- Find the footnote or in-text citation it uses.
- Locate the primary source or next-tier source it cites.
- Write two sentences: (1) what the secondary source says about the claim, (2) what reading the primary source directly adds, changes, or complicates.
Turn in / bring: Two-sentence comparative note on the secondary versus primary source.