Running head: EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

Evaluation of Sources Practice

Nick Bennett
Ottawa University

EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

Evaluation of Sources Practice

Location:
1. Write down the title and URL of the article you are evaluating.
What does the domain (.com, .org, .gov, etc.) tell you about the
information?

http://www.codeblog.com/archives/tales_from_the_ccu/and_were_back.html

The domain is just a .com which means it has financial backing making it
possible for information to be skewed to sell you something or push an
opinion.

Authority:
2. Who is the author and is she/he an authority on the subject? How
can you tell?

The author is a woman named Gina who is a nurse but doesnt have any
special training on the academic side of this topic.

Accuracy:
3. Are there spelling, grammatical, or citation errors? If so, how do
they impact credibility?

This article is written in a very casual manner and does not use proper
grammar.

EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

4. Is a bibliography provided so that you may verify the

information? If statistics or quotes are used, is it clear who the
sources are for those materials? Does the website provide links to
related sources?

No bibliography is provided and there are no links to related sources.

Objectivity:
5. Is the websites content primarily factual or argumentative? Do
you detect any biases, or is information presented in an
evenhanded manner? Give an example.

There is an obvious bias towards having an issue with people who want to
have narcotic pain medications to get rid of all pain. The author says, Im
not used to drug-seeking patients. Just those words used to label a patient
give the reader the feeling that she has an issue.

6. Are there graphics or images, including advertisements, in the

article that are used to influence the user? If so, give an example
and explain its significance.

There are advertisements on the side of the page but are not distracting
types. They are ads for related topics.

Currency:

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7. Is there a date listed for the last update? Are the links
current? What do these aspects tell you about the website?

The date this article was published is September 23, 2003 which makes it
out-of-date.

Content:
8. Are the purposes of the website and article clear? Explain.

Yes, the goal of the paper is to show that drug seeking patients are a
problem and hard to figure out. I will say that the title does not portray the
goal at all.

9. Is the article scholarly, general interest, or popular in nature?

Discuss how the nature of the information might or might not work
in the context of an academic paper.

The article is popular in nature. This would not work for a source for a
scholarly paper because there is not scholarly research included and it is
strictly opinion. I would not use this article for any type of a paper or
presentation.

Other:
10. On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent,
rate the (a) applicability and (b) credibility of the
information. Explain your ratings.
I would be give this article

EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

a)
This is a 1 on applicability because the article is useless for academic
purposes. It is also not on topic; it has nothing to do with the difference
between natural remedies and over-the-counter drugs.

b)
The credibility of this article is a 1. The author has no credentials
that would make her an expert, there are no sources cited or used to
help support her ideas.
Location:
1. Write down the title and URL of the article you are evaluating.
What does the domain (.com, .org, .gov, etc.) tell you about the
information?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/01/moh.healthmag.remedies.avoid/ind
ex.html

The domain is just a .com which means it has financial backing making it
possible for information to be skewed to sell you something or push an
opinion

Authority:
2. Who is the author and is she/he an authority on the subject? How
can you tell?

The author is Sarah Klein who is a reporter and has no special academic
standing in the area of medication or supplements.

EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

Accuracy:
3. Are there spelling, grammatical, or citation errors? If so, how do
they impact credibility?

I did not see any errors in the article and it appears to be well written. This
adds credibility because it shows that it wasnt just thrown together.

4. Is a bibliography provided so that you may verify the

information? If statistics or quotes are used, is it clear who the
sources are for those materials? Does the website provide links to
related sources?

No bibliography is provided. There are quotes credited to authors so it would

be a little work to find the original information. . This article refers to an
academic article which this information is from.

Objectivity:
5. Is the websites content primarily factual or argumentative? Do
you detect any biases, or is information presented in an
evenhanded manner? Give an example.
This article is primarily factual and is given for advice to avoid taking
supplements while on medication to help prevent prescription drugs from
being diluted or modified in what they do to your body because you are
taking a supplement. A bias I detect is that herbal remedies are worthless.
The following quote from the article show this bias: For her part, Dr. Giardina
recommends that heart patients -- and anyone else, for that matter -- steer
clear of herbal products. Frankly, I would just avoid them all, she says. Go
into your medicine cabinet and get rid of anything you bought in an herbal
store that you take in a pill form. Save your money and go buy a pair of
shoes.

EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

6. Are there graphics or images, including advertisements, in the
article that are used to influence the user? If so, give an example
and explain its significance.

There is an advertisement in the corner leading you to more articles by the

website that published this article.

Currency:
7. Is there a date listed for the last update? Are the links
current? What do these aspects tell you about the website?

The links provided are up to date and functioning. The article was published
on February 2, 2010 making it up-to-date but close to the age where you
would be concerned that the information is outdated.

Content:
8. Are the purposes of the website and article clear? Explain.

You could read the title and have a good idea of what the article is saying.
The article is clear as to its message.

9. Is the article scholarly, general interest, or popular in nature?

Discuss how the nature of the information might or might not work
in the context of an academic paper.

EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

The article is popular and general interest but includes information that leads
you to scholarly sources.

Other:
10. On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent,
rate the (a) applicability and (b) credibility of the
information. Explain your ratings.
I would be give this article

a) I give this article 3 out of 5 because you can apply it but if you
planned on using this article in a paper, you should just go to the
original article that this article mentions and use the information
from that article for the resource.

b) I give this article 3 out of 5 because it does use sources but does
not have a bibliography to lead you directly to those sources. The
author does not have expertise in the area that she is writing in.
Location:
1. Write down the title and URL of the article you are evaluating.
What does the domain (.com, .org, .gov, etc.) tell you about the
information?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695418/

This website is a .gov making it a website produced by the government

making it a credible source and usually something you can trust. Information
on .gov should be able to be trusted but some information they put out is

EVALUATION OF SOURCES PRACTICE

propaganda to push a point. This means the reader should still check for
credibility by other means.

Authority:
2. Who is the author and is she/he an authority on the subject? How
can you tell?

This is a list of the authors of this article: Laura Calligaris, Angela Panzera,
Luca Arnoldo, Carla Londero, Rosanna Quattrin, Maria G. Troncon, and Silvio
Brusaferro. All of the authors are authorities on the subject; they have all
contributed to to other scholarly articles and this article has been used as a
reference for many scholarly articles.

Accuracy:
3. Are there spelling, grammatical, or citation errors? If so, how do
they impact credibility?

This article is written in a scholarly manner and is free of spelling and

grammatical errors.

4. Is a bibliography provided so that you may verify the

information? If statistics or quotes are used, is it clear who the
sources are for those materials? Does the website provide links to
related sources?

Yes there is an extensive bibliography that is detailed and well put together.
There are statistics and quotes which always have sources provided. This
article provides links to related articles.

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10

Objectivity:
5. Is the websites content primarily factual or argumentative? Do
you detect any biases, or is information presented in an
evenhanded manner? Give an example.

This article is objective and the research that it cites is scientific which
means that it has been controlled for variables that might otherwise skew
the results. It uses findings instead of simply opinions as stated in this quote,
The findings confirm that there is a problem that needs to be attended to
and serve to sensitize stakeholders in health delivery about this issue.

6. Are there graphics or images, including advertisements, in the

article that are used to influence the user? If so, give an example
and explain its significance.

There are advertisements at the top but most of what is on the page is
related articles. This would influence a reader because it would lead them to
find another website to further their research.

Currency:
7. Is there a date listed for the last update? Are the links
current? What do these aspects tell you about the website?

The article was published in May 13, 2009 which makes it out-of-date but just
barely. The links are current and tell me that even though the article is a little
older it is still maintained.

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11

Content:
8. Are the purposes of the website and article clear? Explain.

Even from the title you can tell what the article is intending to tell you. The
abstract is well written and provides you with enough information to decide
whether this is an article that you should read further and whether it would
be useful for your writing purposes.

9. Is the article scholarly, general interest, or popular in nature?

Discuss how the nature of the information might or might not work
in the context of an academic paper.

This article is very scholarly in nature. It would be useful in an academic

paper.

Other:
10. On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent,
rate the (a) applicability and (b) credibility of the
information. Explain your ratings.
I would be give this article

a) I give this article 1 of 5 for applicability because it does not actually

contribute to the purpose of the paper I would be writing. It does
not talk about the differences between herbal remedies and overthe-counter drugs. It is not on topic.
b) This article is 5 out of 5 on credibility because the authors are all

experts in their field, the bibliography is detailed and extensive and

everything is cited correctly.