1. Website Evaluations

2. Evaluating Sources: A Brief Overview • Why evaluate sources? • How do we evaluate sources? • What does creditability mean? • What are good websites to use when writing a paper? • What is a research database? • What is a scholarly article?

3. Evaluating Sources: Why Do It? • It is always important to evaluate the sources you use when writing a paper. • Evaluating your sources will allow you to determine their creditability and whether they will strengthen or hurt your argument. • Your paper succeeds or fails based on your choice of sources

4. Creditable or Not? • Websites are creditable based on several different criteria. • Open Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpentry • Research Databases http://education.fcps.org/mhs/node/1130

5. Our System • We will use the RADCAB system (see next slide) • This will help you to know where to look and what to look at when evaluating sources.

6. Evaluating Sources:RADCAB • Relevancy- is the information relevant to the question at hand? Am I on track? • Appropriateness- Is the information suitable for my age and core values? Will it help me answer my question? • Detail- How much information do I need? Is the depth of coverage adequate? • Currency- When was the information published or last updated? • Authority- Who is the author of the information? What are his/ her, their qualifications? • Bias- Why was the information written? Was it written to inform me, persuade me, or sell me something?

7. Assignment • Review three of your Diigo sites using the RADCAB system. • See the example if you have questions about what to do. • Make sure your paper is MLA formatted, has an original title, and a works cited page.