What is Credibility?
Being a student at a university means you should never believe anything without researching many sources, analyzing, and developing independent ideas. In basic language, establishing credibility in your paper and with the sources you use is a process of double- and triple-checking information presented in any given source, analyzing the source, and doing additional research. Please use the following lists to help you understand credibility.
Be extra careful when reading sources that
are on the Internet! (Articles from an academic database are not considered Internet sources.)
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are written/sponsored by a for-profit organization
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are written/sponsored by a newspaper, magazine, or other media outlet (almost all sources of media are owned by only five companies)
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are written/sponsored by the government, or an associate
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have limited or no contact information
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make broad or wild claims
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discuss a new topic that you do not know much about, or one that is a new discovery for everyone
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do not have citations, or reference lists
When checking to see if sources are credible, ask the following:
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Who wrote the article? What are their credentials? Look up their name (try Google) and see what comes up. (Once I was assigned to write a response to an article by Dr. Bernard Lewis, a historian. Upon researching his name, I discovered he was convicted in a French court for misrepresenting and omitting history in some of his works. My paper quickly changed in its focus. The lesson here is, even someone with their doctorate can be charged with not being credible.)
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Who published the article? What are the publishing requirements? What is the process?
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Who owns the publishing company? Who owns them?
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How does the article read? Is it logical?
Sources may be considered credible when they have some of the following characteristics:
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provide a list of references. Check some of them to see if the author uses them correctly, but also look for sources they did not list--this will help focus your interpretation.
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have a thesis with developed, realistic points
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give appropriate evidence
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acknowledge/present more than one interpretation
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use direct quotations
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admit the limits in their paper/knowledge
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suggest a solution for the issue they are writing about
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written by an author with experience or a positive reputation in his/her field. (Experience should be treated with some caution, though, as experience and bias often go hand-in-hand.)
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For an academic essay, peer-reviewed (i.e. scholarly essays) are good choices.
You may be wondering why credibility is important. Credibility is important because you want to make a positive, lasting impression on your reader (namely the professor).
Although you want to have credibility, this does not mean you cannot use sources that are not credible. Sometimes this may be exactly what you need. Revealing a lack of credibility in your sources allows you to point out bias and show mastery of more advanced skills. But remember, so-called credibility will be different according to the given time period. For example, today it would be considered inappropriate and not credible if a source said only white men are humans; in Renaissance European society, this was accepted as fact. So remember to also use cultural relativism.
Even if a source is credible, please remember there are always more sides to the story. Sometimes credbility may not be as much of an issue, especially if it is an essay involving interpretation, such as literary analysis.
And always, most importantly, please remember--just because something is said by someone (regardless of who it is) or appears in print form does not mean it is true. Likewise, you can disagree with something and it can still be credible. Many students confuse "agree and disagree" with "credible and not credible."
Copyright (c) 2005, 2007 by Andrew Joseph Pegoda. All Rights Reserved.
Originally created Tuesday, September 20, 2005; revised Friday, May 9, 2008
--permission granted to reproduce and distribute this handout for academic purposes--
