Introduction

It is important for academic authors to demonstrate that they know what they are talking about and that their ideas are based on solid evidence and on concepts that other people have developed. Chad Lorenz wrote a great article that introduces this topic nicely, entitled Can You Believe It? This news media literacy class would teach people how to sort the true from the false.

When a student uses a book that was published by a well-respected publishing house, cites text from a peer-reviewed scholarly article, or reads up on a reference from a library database, it is not too difficult to evaluate credibility.

The trouble often begins with research on the web.

The problem with the web is that anyone can publish on it and the author’s appearances can be deceiving.  Many people and many websites do an excellent job at appearing to be things that they are not.

External Resources

The following resources are designed to help students understand what evidence should—and should not be—used during written compositions and oral discussions who want to convince their readers that they know what they are talking about: