SKC 101

As part of your information gathering process, you will find many sources on your topic. To determine which sources are the best for you, consider how you will use these sources in your speech. Our tips for how to choose sources based on their potential use will help you with that. But you'll also want to do some fact-checking as you find sources in order to determine their quality. In doing so, you will:

• Check for previous work on the topic that may allow you to corroborate/disprove an argument
• Track a source to its beginning and get as close to the original information as you can in order to verify it
• Read laterally to get a sense of what other sources say about your source and its trustworthiness

It is also important to be able to navigate the different types of information you find online, so you know how to evaluate it and how it will be useful to you. The video below gives an overview of strategies for evaluating online information.