Criminal Justice

Timeliness, Comprehensiveness, Genre

• Timeliness: Is the information up to date for your subject?

• Comprehensiveness: Does the source provide a complete and balanced view of the topic?

• Genre: What source type are you evaluating, and who is the audience?

Consider whether timeliness is essential for your project and, if so, whether the source is current and up to date.

• Is the information current or outdated for your topic?

• Is there a date indicating when the text or webpage was published? 

• If you use a webpage, is there a date indicating when it was last updated? 

• Is your topic historical? Will it benefit from information published at the time? 

The importance of timeliness—when a source was published--varies according to your purposes and topic. For a student working on a project about New Wave music, timeliness will take on a much different meaning than it will for a student working on a report about the Heisman Trophy. The first student must explore sources published in the late 1970s and early ’80s, while the second will search for the most current sources available. However, if you are not working on a project that studies a particular time period, use the most recent sources you can find. In this era of rapid advances in knowledge, sources can become outdated in a matter of months. Use older materials only when their value has held up over time or if your research focuses on a particular historical period.

Is the content comprehensive for your project?

• Does the source provide a complete and balanced view of the topic?

• The importance of comprehensiveness varies depending upon what you are researching.

• Comprehensiveness can guide you to get a complete and balanced view of the topic.

Is the information complete and balanced?

• Comprehensiveness refers to the extent to which a source provides a complete and balanced view of a topic or issue. Comprehensiveness can be a helpful evaluation criterion when you need to give a complete and balanced treatment of your topic or if you are beginning to explore a topic and need to learn as much as possible about it. Many sources provide a narrowly focused discussion of a topic, presenting information and ideas about a single side of an argument or describing only one aspect of an issue. Yet these sources can nonetheless provide valuable ideas and information. However, be wary of treating such sources as the primary authority on the topic you are interested in, particularly if you are working with a few sources.

What type of document is your source?

• Identifying the genre or document type can help you understand the intended audience, the kind of appeals and evidence that is likely to be used, and the type of argument that is likely to be Usingto used. Using sources your audience will recognize as relevant, reliable, and authori is important.

• • Scholarly journals and government reports are more reliable and authoritative than many blogs or wikis.

To determine the relevance of a source, consider whether 

• the information in the source is useful for your purposes 

• the information in the source will help you meet your readers' needs and interests

• the source contains strong quotations or hard facts

• the source can help you learn more about your topic 

• the source can help you answer your research question

Ask yourself

• Has the author cited (provided in-text references and/or bibliography) materials to support their position?

• Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, or institutional biases?

• If the information is opinion, is this clearly stated? 

What's a good fit for you?

Evaluate the kind, quality, quantity, and appropriateness of information offered as support. Evidence is information provided to support a point. Statistics, facts, expert opinions, and anecdotes are among the many types of evidence you will find in your sources.

As you evaluate a source, consider

• the amount of evidence provided by the source--be wary of sources that fail to support their arguments or offer little or no information to illustrate ideas

  • This means are there citations, a bibliography, links to the sources used, and direct quotes from experts or participants—something that shows you where the information comes from.

• the type of evidence used in the source--ask whether the evidence is appropriate for the arguments or ideas addressed in the source 

• the persuasiveness of the evidence--ask whether the source offers reasonable alternative interpretations of the evidence, whether it uses questionable or inappropriate evidence, and whether evidence used in one part of a source contradicts evidence used elsewhere 

Ask yourself

• Has the author cited (provided in-text references and/or bibliography) materials to support their position?

• Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, or institutional biases?

• If the information is opinion, is this clearly stated? 

Consider

The origin of the evidence--ask where the evidence used in a source comes from and whether it is drawn from a single source or from multiple sources.  

To help evaluate the accuracy of evidence, look for

• citations and a bibliography that lists other credible sources of information that support the author’s position

• links to websites or other web-documents that support the author’s position

• information about possible opposing points of view or different interpretations of the data

• information about the author’s political or institutional affiliations to show potential bias