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Research Process: A Step-by-Step Guide: Step 3: Evaluate

This guide will help you understand the research process that you need to go through for your assignments.

Introduction

When doing research, it is important to find information that is reliable and appropriate for your assignment

Some assignments may require you to use certain types of sources such as primary or secondary sources, or specific types of periodicals such as scholarly journals. Other assignments may require you to limit the number of sources you use. Often Internet sources fall into this category.

In all cases, you should always evaluate the information included in your assignments.

Why Evaluate?

Knowing how to evaluate information will help you with research assignments and also with the bigger decisions you make in life.

Knowing how to find relevant, reliable, and accurate information, can help you make informed decisions about things like university, a new car purchase, financial aid options, daycare choices, and more.

Remember...

...every step of the research process involves judgment.

You will need to carefully evaluate each tool and source that you use in the research process. Once you begin to track down sources from your tools, you'll get a better idea of how individual sources will support (or won't support) your project.

You will probably need to conduct many different searches, with many different tools, in order to find the best material.

Evaluating