Researching Your Research:
Teaching Students about Source Credibility in
the Age of the Internet
Mitch Cox
HOW TO FIND THIS PPT
& OTHER FILES.
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a browser.
•Go to Google.
•Type Mitch Cox, Teacher Web and
click on Mitch Cox’s Website.
BACK TO THE FUTURE:
ARISTOTLE’S ETHOS: the credibility of
the writer or speaker

One of the ways a student writer establishes
her or his own ethos is by citing reliable
sources. How do we know if sources are
reliable?
CONSIDERATIONS FOR
CREDIBILITY
Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary Sources
◦ A first-hand account of someone out of work because
of the recent recession: personal, telephone, email
Interview or Blog
◦ A government economic report with hard data and
(statistics) on unemployment

Secondary Sources
◦ A study of economic data by economists (experts in
the field)
◦ A news report on this issue by a journalist who has
experience with this topic and who interviews a range
of experts on this topic.
MORE CONSIDERATIONS
OF CREDIBILITY
Time, Political Perspective, Balance
How recent is the source? [Ex. of vaccination/autism]
 What is the political perspective of the
source?
 If the source is not an expert in the field, does
the source cite a range of experts in the field,
from different political perspectives?

MORE CONSIDERATIONS
OF CREDIBILITY CONT’D
Time, Political Perspective, Balance
If you are using one source from one side of
the political perspective, have you considered
a source representing the other perspective?
[some .org sources]
 Is your source a well-known and wellrespected expert in the field or a national or
international publication?

MORE CONSIDERATIONS
OF CREDIBILITY CONT’D
Types of Sources & Audiences
General Audience Magazines vs. Academic
Journals
 Peer-Reviewed Journals: reviewed by other
scholars in the field to get their opinion on
the quality of the scholarship, its relevance,
appropriateness
 How do you know?

MORE CONSIDERATIONS
OF CREDIBILITY CONT’D
Editorials
Editorials/Columns can provide useful arguments
 Find out what you can about the
columnist/editorialist?
 Is the columnist/editorialist an expert in the field,
is she/he writing about his/her subject?
 If the editorialist/columnist is not a first-hand
expert on this topic, is she/he someone who has
studied and written about the topic?

MORE CONSIDERATIONS
OF CREDIBILITY CONT’D
News Reporting: The “Facts”





News. “Fact”-Based Reporting
There is no non-biased reporting/
Does the reporter offer balance, a range of
perspectives?
Does the reporter have experience with the topic?
What are the potential biases of the publication? .com
sources: Who owns the publication? What does the
publication own? [Washington Post example]
RESEARCHING YOUR
RESEARCH
Other Considerations
On what do the experts agree? Where do the experts
disagree? Why?
 When examining studies, surveys, and statistics,
consider: How many people, subjects were involved?
Over how long a period? Is it a statistically valid
sample? How many studies have been conducted? Are
the results and conclusions of the studies consistent
or contradictory over time? Are there expert
speculations on the reasons for contradictions?

RESEARCHING YOUR
RESEARCH
Ethos/credibility notations
15
[15 indicates that this is the 15th source card/bibliographic entry in your alphabetical ordered list.]
McLay, Robert N. At War with PTSD: Battling Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Virtual Reality.
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2012. Print.
ETHOS NOTE:Booknews.com notes that McLay is a psychiatrist and research director at the Naval
Medical Center in San Diego and “explains complicated medical and psychiatric concepts and
processes for general readers.” Booknews also mentions that At War “will satisfy researchers and
scholars.”
WM 172.5 M478a 2012[Call Number] UNC-CH Health Sciences Library Books [Source Location]
RESEARCHING YOUR
RESEARCH
Ethos/credibility notations
2
[2 indicates that this is the 15th source card/bibliographic entry in your alphabetical ordered list.]
Coleman, Penny. Posttramautic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War. Boston:
Press, 2006. Print.
Beacon
A photojournalist married in the 1970s to a Vietnam veteran who later committed suicide.
Coleman has researched the history of PTSD from the Civil War to the current conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan. A teacher of photography and photojournalism at the International Center for
Photography and New Jersey City University.
616.852 COL [Call Number]
Orange County Public Library [Source Location]
HANDOUTS & LINKS
See my Website
Ethos Teaching Handout
 Ethos Critique Exercise
 Links Handout

◦ Evaluating Print Sources from UNC-CH Writing
Center