You need to
address…
Questions to ask yourself….
Who is the author?
Origin
Context of Creation
What are his/her credentials?
What is his/her experience?
How would the time of creation
affect selection or evaluation of
information?
What is the source’s explicit
meaning?
Explicit meaning
Implicit meaning
Motive/purpose
Perspective
Corroboration
What is the source’s implicit
meaning?
What is the point of view?
Phrase starters…
This source is created by…
The author has a Masters in….
The author has spent their working career
researching…
Writing at a time of ….the author states…
The source’s view is coloured by the events of ….
This source explicitly states…
This source is about…
This source implies that…
This source suggests…
This author values….
What is the purpose or agenda?
The author’s attitude towards …. is …..
The author positions the audience to …
Is it emotive or neutral in tone?
The tone of the source is …
How much factual reporting does it
do?
o How emotive are the
claims?
What is the bias?
o What gaps and silences in
information are evident?
Of what group is this
source/author representative of?
o How moderate or extreme
are the views of this source?
o What affiliations does this
author have? E.g. political
beliefs
What other sources does this
source refer to as evidence?
o Primary sources?
o Reference list?
Does this source corroborate with
any of my other sources in this
investigation?
Does this evidence support or
disprove my hypothesis?
Usefulness Statement
How useful is this source for your
investigation?
On the whole, the source is highly emotive. This is
evident…
The source fails to mention…
Representing a …… view, this source aims to …
Affiliated with ……, the author’s point of view is
clear.
The author made use of three major non-Western
primary sources which are….
This source refers to ….. account of …. as
justification for…
The …. views of this source corroborate with source
3 as they both state…
This source confirms the hypothesis that…
This source provides evidence that disproves the
hypothesis.
Despite its obvious bias, this source is very useful
for the current investigation because…