Evaluating Source Materials

What Are Outisde Sources?

Outside sources are materials that come from somewhere other than your memory or direct experience. These outside sources often makeup what is considered hard evidence in an argumentative, or other, research essay. These sources include, but are not limited to, books, magazines, academic or professional journals, radio and television shows, films, and the testimony of experts.

How is Reliability and Authority Evaluated in a Source?

Like many things, authority and reliability depends on the source. Because, as a writer, you want to maintain a moderate tone and not drive your readers away, you have to choose your sources wisely. If you were to write an essay about animal testing, there are three (at least) sources of printed information available.

One of the sources is the Humane Society of the United States. The HSUS is a fairly mainstream, conservative organiazation. They tend to work behind the scenes in a low key way. HSUS runs animal shelters, spay and neuter programs, and looks into the treatment of both livestock and pets. The HSUS also engages in traditional political actions such as lobbying Congress.

Another organization and source of information on animals is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA is a bit more high profile than HSUS and many prominent people are members. If you have seen the "Don't Wear Fur" campaign where a group of models and moviestars stand behind a banner bearing that proclamation, you have seen some of the information PETA puts out. They are more activist and outspoken than the HSUS, but tend to have pretty much the same goals and act within the law.

Also among those advocating animal rights is the Animal Liberation Front. ALF is among the more radical of animal rights organizations, and if you believe the newspaper reports, they are also more likely to act outside of the law. If you have read stories in the paper about break-ins at research labs where animals are set free, someone holding philosophies similar to ALF's may well have been involved.

These characterizations are meant to show that while people and organizations can have similar goals, they can also have different approaches to achieving those goals. These approaches are products of the biases we all have. As a writer you need to be aware of the biases your sources have. If you are not aware of the biases, your argument may end up being undermined by them. If you are writing an argument to support a ban on animal testing and you know your audience wants to continue testing, which source of information might be the most likely to sway their opinion? The radical or the mainstream? The moderate or the in-your-face? If you can get the same information from a more conservative source, it may have a greater effect on your audience.

More on Reliability and Authority

There are three general categories of journals and magazines and you should understand how they are different.

The first category is written by a generalist for the general public. General consumption news and entertainment magazines fit into this category. Often the writer is someone with no specific training or experience in the topic they are writing about. In a sense they become "instant experts" on their topic as they compose the essay or article. Publications such as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Ebony, and Esquire fit into this category. These publications will typically contain a good deal of advertising. These publications rely on advertising dollars to sustain themselves and they are in business to turn a profit as well as provide the public with information.

The second category is written by an expert for the general public. This expert may not have specific training in their topic but they may have devoted their career to writing about certain issues, or they may be a professional intheir field but prefer to write to a general audience rather than to or for their peers. Publications such as the Smithsonian, Psychology Today and National Geographic can be considered to fit into this category. These publications usually rely more on subscription dollars than advertising dollars to continue their existance, but there will be some advertising, usually concentrated in the front of the publication.

The third category is written by an expert for other experts. These are typically professional and academic journals. Titles include College English, Teaching English In a Two Year College, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Lancet (the British version of JAMA), and many more too numerous to list. A quick trip through the library will provide you a quick glimpse of what is available. These publications are nearly devoid of advertising and those advertisements that are there usually are for textbooks and professional studies related to the field that the journal covers. Also, while publication in the first two categories requires the writer to simply please the editor, publication in professional and academic journals requires peer review. Peer review means that the essay was sent to the editor, who inturn sent the essay to reviewers, who critique the manuscript and send it back to the editor and writer for revision. These cycle can be repeated. Essays in professional journals will also contain a complete list of source materials where the articles and essays in the first two categories may or may not name their sources.

Books or Magazines: Which Way Should You Go?

Journals and Magazines are typically more current than books, often making them a better source of information. They also do not require you to read a whole book to get the little bits of information you might be looking for. By the time a book reaches the shelves of a library, it may be as much as two or three years behind current scholarship on the topic. There is a long process of researach, writing, and revision before a book even reaches the mechancial publishing stage where type setting, galley proofing, final publication and distribution can take at least six months. The general rule of thumb is don't use any source that is older than 10 years unless it is a piece of work absolutely critical to a particular field's scholarship.

How About Personal Interviews?

Pesornal Interviews are often one good way to get the testimony of experts. Of course, as you can see by watching news coverage of any trial, you can find an expert to say just about anything you need to be said. Lawyers are a good example to illustrate this: Lawyers are experts in the field of law, but for every lawyer who wins a case, and has presumably made the proper judgement about the law and circumstances in question, there is a lawyer who loses that same case who made a less valid interpretation of the same circumstances.

How About the Internet as a Source?

You've likely heard all of the hype about the Information Superhighway that is the World Wide Web and Internet. And there is as much good information out on the Web as many Net-heads say. However, there is at least as much garbage out on the Web as there is useful information. The problem then becomes how to tell the good from the bad and the ugly. Remember that anyone can put up a web site. AS with any other form of publication there are no editors. Once in awhile aservice provider won't allow certain material on their machines, but that is rare. On the Web, be extra critical of what you see. Along with solid information and scholarship, there are a lot of wackos out there. If you are not sure about the material you find at web sites, use the questioning strategies in the following two links to give you a better idea about the material on any given web site.

Statistics? You Want to Use Statistics?

Mark Twain said "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." A more recent maxim about statistics is that they are like bikinis: Interesting for what they reveal, but essential for what they cover up. Keep both of these points in mind as you provide your reader with statistics to clarify or support a point in your essay. While statistics can bring certain parts of an argument to light, don't rely on them to make your argument for you and don't use so many of them as to make your essay read like a spread sheet. Your reader won't get your argument if they fall asleep!