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GEOS1100: Research Skills: Evaluate

A guide to finding quality information for your GEOS1100 assessment tasks.

Evaluating Information

Selecting appropriate information is an important part of the research process.  Not all your search results will be relevant or suitable for purpose. Critical evaluation of the information you select is essential.  This is particularly important if using information from websites as reliability and quality of information from the Web cannot be assured.

Evaluation guidelines 1

When selecting information you need to examine it critically before using it.  Ask yourself:

  • is it appropriate for an academic assignment?
  • is it relevant to the research topic?
  • does it cover the issues I am considering?
  • does it come from a reliable source?
  • is it up to date?
  • have I used a broad range of resources?

 

Evaluation guidelines 2

Ask yourself the following questions to help you evaluate your resources. Click each topic for more information.

+ How did you find the information?

+ What is the coverage and relevance ?

+ Who is the intended audience ?

+ Does it have a bibliography ?

+ Who is the author ?

+ Evaluating Websites ?