Chapter 5 | Evaluating Sources

In Chapter 5, Evaluating Sources, Bedford takes a dive into the concept that "just because someone says it, doesn’t mean you should believe it."  Basically - question what you hear/ read!  You can do this by examining credibility of the author, the publisher, when the publishing took place, and what type of publishing it is.  

For example, always take information from Wikipedia with a grain of salt.  This a “Wiki” which, according to Bedford is “a website that can add to or edited by visitors to the site.”  This allows for multiple visitors with multiple points of view and credibility to continuously access and contribute to the web page.  This can be problematic as if you site something from that page one day, by the time you turn in or publish your paper, the information could have changed.

My favorite point that Bedford made was to evaluate who your author is and not get hung up on their credentials/ resume, but whether or not they are an appropriate expert in what they are discussing.  A 16 year old recent Olympic Gold medalist swimmer, with no college education, might be a more credible source on “The pressures of Olympic Competition” than a highly published 60 Year old Rhodes Scholar journalist who attended the Olympics once 20 years ago.