Environmental Project Management Academy: Asking Questions and Evaluating

Before you read

• What type of source is this?
  • Does it match up with your need? (background info, popular opinion, how-to manual, peer-reviewed article, etc.)
• Who wrote this?
  • What kind of expertise/experience do they have with the topic?
  • No named author + not a reputable publisher = reason to doubt the information
• Who sponsored/paid for this?
  • Where was this published?
  • If it’s a website is it a .com, .org, .gov, .edu
    • How might each of these types of organizations have an ‘agenda’
• When was this written
  • Is it out of date for your purposes?
• How is it organized?
  • What do headings/images tell you about the information?
  • Any big headlines or images that are meant to shock you or emotionally manipulate you?

As you read it

• Who is the audience of this?
• What is the message?
  • Is it meant to make you feel a certain way?
  • Is it calling you to action?
  • Is it informing you?
• What evidence is provided by the author?
  • What type of evidence are they using?
  • How do they represent opposing ideas?
  • How are images/statistics used?

After you read it

• How does the information in this source match up with what you’re reading in other sources?