Nerdify Reviews 5 Clever Ways to Differentiate a Quality Source from a Bad One
You stayed up late into the night, trying to assemble a formidable research project. Suddenly, Google returns an avalanche of search results, and you need to know which source to trust. In this case, how do you ensure that the information you utilize for your academic assignment is credible, accurate, and backed by evidence? You will find out as you continue reading!
“Research is something that everyone can do, and everyone ought to do. It is simply collecting information and thinking systematically about it.”
- Raewyn Connell
Whether researching a complex topic for your college project or merely seeking answers to disturbing questions, the ability to identify a quality source from a bad one is a skill you will build on your academic journey. The Nerdify Reviews team is here to show you how to get reliable information for your college work amidst the data chaos.
Nerdify Reviews What Is Considered A Good Source?
In your relentless pursuit of academic excellence as a college student, it is crucial that you also wield the power of critical thinking to help you navigate the deep waters of misinformation.
A credible source is written by an author with a reputation and vast experience in their field. This is a notable biomarker to look out for when researching your college assignment. You should also expect that a good source is free from bias and errors.
Types of Sources
The types of sources you will often encounter in your research can be split into three main categories:
- Primary Sources
They give you information first-hand and communicate the thoughts of the author. Good examples include podcasts, statistics, research articles, and press releases. When interviewed via a Reddit survey, 69% of college students agreed that primary sources work best for them.
- Secondary
This provides information in a report, discussion, or review format. You will often find them in journal articles and newspapers.
- Tertiary
Tertiary information sources are a combination of primary and secondary information sources. They are mostly found in textbooks, dictionaries, and fact books. A recent poll on Statista uncovered that nearly two-thirds of college students use tertiary sources for their assignments.
Nerdify Reviews 5 Ways To Identify A Quality Source
There is some outdated and biased information out there. The following tips will help you locate a good source at any time.
1. Observe the domain name
It would help if you watched out for the letters in front of the website’s domain name, like “gov”, “org”, and so on. Generally, government, nonprofit, and educational websites with the “gov”, “org”, and “edu” suffixes are credible, but you need to be cautious of websites that use them to mislead people.
You can use a domain name checker to ensure who owns the domain.
2. Examine the source
A good source should provide information about the author and links to other authoritative sources. You should also check if the website includes first-hand information with facts or merely discusses the point without experience.
3. What date was it published?
The date of a publication may not determine if a source is genuine or not. But in study fields for college students, the data may go obsolete and irrelevant to the present demand. Good sources usually update their content to match up with recent data, while bad sources don’t just care.
4. Look out for extra information
As you come across sources, you should test to verify the authenticity of the information using reliable websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, to see if there is a contrast from the source you found.
5. Google SERPs
Good sources are usually ranked on Google SERPs before considering other sources. While this is not the case for most search queries, you have a high chance of obtaining good sources from Google Search Engine Result Pages.
Nerdify Reviews How To Get Better Results In Your Project Research
Every college student must build proficiency in evaluating information sources as part of their research skill. We have highlighted some points that will help you get the best result from your research.
- Jumpstart with authoritative sources
Credible sources are a good way to commence your research. Credible sources are excellent in helping you fine-tune your research. This will help you get some foundational facts needed to boost further inquiries.
Depending on the type of research you are conducting, you will discover that every authoritative website has what they specialize in. Remember the domain suffixes we talked about earlier? That will help you identify where to start.
- Backtest every link
Since links are pivotal in driving home a point, a bad source will utilize malicious links to mislead students. Always confirm the link source to be sure that the information is genuine.
- Journal a reference list
As a good research practice, college students must master writing down a reference list from websites from which they have previously gotten information. This will help you spot contrast and also know when you are diving out, of course.
In Conclusion
The research of the Nerdify Reviews experts showed that there are as many bad sources on the internet as good ones. We have provided the information above to help you recognize a good source and avoid bad ones. Whenever you get stuck trying to identify a genuine website, refer to the guidelines above or you can always get a Nerd to help you.
