Lesson 4:
Doing Research & Checking for Bias

For research…

Research documents require a more thorough evaluation.

• For these, you should determine what proof the author provides to support his or her opinions or conclusions.
• You will need to feel comfortable with the credibility of the argument and the conclusions reached before using these sources to support your own research.

Another way to evaluate the validity of a site is to follow the links found within its pages to see where they lead.

• Do they work or do they generate a “page not found” error?
• Are they appropriate to the content of the initial page or site?
• Are they professional organizations or the sites of people with similar opinions?