HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT INFORMATION:
What to do? Do the following exercise in 3 steps:
This brief exercise helps you acquire essential vocabulary for understanding your course assignments, clarifying issues with your faculty, and consulting with your librarians.
1. Review the tabs and content provided by this LibGuide "Types of Information": http://libguides.astate.edu/content.php?pid=90624&sid=674945 [prepared by April Sheppard, Arkansas State University].
2. Self-check: Review these sample terms commonly used in college course settings - if they seem unfamiliar, revisit the LibGuide above in Step 1.
3. Learn how to recognize a scholarly journal when you see one in print or online - and more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud0U-NWuIj8 [Georgia State University Libraries] Terms to know: scholarly articles, journal, popular magazine, peer-review - define what they are and when to use them.
Criteria to evaluate information content are AUTHORITY, OBJECTIVITY, QUALITY, CURRENCY, RELEVANCY, and sometimes CORROBORATION/COVERAGE. You can use these same criteria, or rubric, to evaluate any journal article, book, website, broadcast, blog, or public speaker.
It may help you to remember them if you reorder these criteria as O - QU A K (C) RS
What to do? Read/think about Evaluating Sources, below.
Read through the guide linked below to clarify your understanding of these concepts:
(Permission requested from University of Nevada at Reno, Mathewson/IGT Knowledge Center.)
