| Evaluating information Can you believe everything you read? Probably not. An important part of gathering the relevant information that you need to complete your research project is thinking critically about what you find. Some authors and organizations are extremely biased and will only present one side of an argument. Controversial issues usually have information in books, articles or websites that will give the "pro's" and "con's" with different people's opinions. You get to decide if the author's logic is convincing or flawed. Grossmont College librarians have prepared some Flyers & Handouts that are available in printed form at the Reference Desk and online from the library's home page. One of them is especially designed to help you evaluate information found on the Internet by posing questions about these four criteria: Content, Credibility, Currency and Clarity. Since anyone can make web pages available, you need to be aware that there may not have been any reviewing (or editing) similar to what is done for articles published in periodicals or chapters prepared for books. Move ahead to Citing Sources |