Reliability of Sources How can you tell if a source is going to be reliable?

Primary sources  A primary source is an original object or document -- the raw material or first-hand information.  Eye witness accounts are also a primary source, but are less reliable than a document.

A primary source is an original object or document -- the raw material or first-hand information.  historical and legal documents  results of an experiment  statistical data  pieces of creative writing  art objects  eye witness accounts

Secondary sources  A secondary source is something written about a primary source.  You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information. If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondhand source.

Secondary sources  Secondary sources include:  comments on  interpretations of  discussions about the original material

Secondary sources  Secondary source materials can be:  articles in newspapers  popular magazines  book or movie reviews  articles found in scholarly journals that evaluate or criticize someone else's original research

What is the source of the information being considered? Publication Date - is the information current, or does it need to be current? Reputation of publication - is the source well known and trustworthy? Kind of publication - is it a scientific report, eye-witness account, a work of fiction?

Author or Speaker  Qualifications - is she/he an expert in her/his field?  Bias - is she/he one-sided in her/his point-of-view?  Values - what does the author value in regards to the topic?  Chance for personal gain - does the author stand to benefit from his position?

Means of getting the Information  Witness or researcher - was the author or speaker a first-hand witness to the information or did he gather it from some other source?  Equipment - what kind of equipment was used to record information?

How Reliable?

Let’s rank some sources!  If you were looking for information on Hurricane Katrina which source would be the most reliable?  A. victim blog  B. novel  C. newspaper report  D. eyewitness account Which one is the least reliable?

If you were doing a report on Barak Obama, rank these sources from most reliability to least reliability.  1. A recent Time magazine article  2. An encyclopedia article dated 1/30/05  3. An article in the National Enquirer  4. A blog by Obama’s campaign manager 1,2,4,3

Rank the following resources from greatest reliability to least realiability for an essay titled “War in Iraq.”  1. Newspaper article “War in Iraq” by a war correspondent  2. Tabloid article “What They Don’t Let Us Know”  3. Internet site on Iraq and the postwar period  4. Journal of a soldier serving in Iraq 1, 4, 3, 2

 Perhaps the best way to think of the reliability of information is to think of it as existing on a scale, rather than falling into the categories of reliable or unreliable. Information can range from very unreliable to highly reliable and also anywhere in between.

Time to show what you know!  You may use your notes  Complete the Performance Task online for a grade