Recognizing Sources

Let's talk about credibility
 

1. What does it mean to be "credible"? 

2. How do you determine someone or something is credible in everyday life? 

3. What would be the indicators of a lack of credibility?

4. Is credibility related to how useful something is?

5. How does credibility reflect on you?
    

What does the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) say about being "credible"?

Credibility can also be:

• "telling the truth. It involves being just. But it may also involve being merciful, being empathetic" - Robert M. Berdahl, History Professor and UC-Berkeley Chancellor
• the likelihood that something enables a person to form accurate beliefs and use them to make effective decisions, especially ones relevant to their lives—or at least avoids decreasing the accuracy of someone’s beliefs or the efficacy of their decisions - Columbia Journalism Review
• include three aspects: clarity (how easily the article can be understood), accuracy (how well documented the information is), and trustworthiness (how believable the information is) - Credibility on Wikipedia

What do you think about the following sources?

1. Why would the following sources be inappropriate to use? 
2. Why might we want to use them even though you shouldn't use them as sources?

A few tips for figuring out whether sources are credible, reliable, appropriate, and useful for your research project:

• Not all .gov and .edu sources are automatically credible. You are looking for the BEST sources possible for you. That means useful, credible, and reliable.
• Anonymous sources (sources with no author vs sources with a "corporate" or institutional author) are not appropriate sources.
  • Too many sources out there to settle on an anonymous source
  • How do you know what their background is? Their level of expertise? (for example, Reddit)
  • Anything worth saying is worth standing by
  • Inefficient -- Extra work needed on your part to vet the information