1. Information skills
Critical Thinking and Evaluation: how to critically
evaluate information sources
Linda Kerr

2. Information skills

3. Critical thinking
If you want to make claims for someone else to
support:
Claims (premise) Claims (conclusion)
What do you need to support your claim..?

4. Critical thinking
• Identify the focus of the assignment
• Identify your own point of view
• Consider how you’ll persuade other people of
your point of view
• Find the proof
• Engage in debate
• Structure your argument
• Cotterall, S (2006). Critical Thinking Skills. Palgrave McMillan .

5. Information/Evidence
• Where do you get information?
• Eg How did you decide to come to Heriot-Watt
University

6. Potential Pitfalls
• Essays, assignments, dissertations, theses:
– University students can fail assignments or get poor marks
in their coursework because they have used the Internet in
ways that are inappropriate for work at this level
– Repeating information from a single source (eg a text
book, encyclopedia or Website) is not sufficient.
– Copy information from the Internet and don't
acknowledge sources
– Gain better marks, produce better academic work

7. Finding information : sources
• Books, journals and theses (Library catalogue)
• Articles, reports etc (Library databases)
• All above and more – Internet (need to sift
and evaluate)
• Combination of above

8. Appropriate resources
• If you are writing an essay on something like popular
culture or political bias it might be appropriate to:
• reference informal or primary sources that represent different
points of view
• discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these.
• Scientific information – find accurate, peer-
reviewed information

9. How to critically evaluate information
sources
• Journals (online and print)
• Books and ebooks
• Websites

10. Book
• Publisher
– eg a University Press, professional society press?
• Author or editors credentials
• Read content pages – any bias?
• Reference books - check a piece of
information you know is correct

11. Journal Articles
• Look at author credentials
– Place of work, professional affiliations
– Is there an abstract?
– Are there references at the end of the article
– Do other people cite this paper? Or only self-citation?
– timeliness of the entry
– keywords to see what other categories the work falls into.
• Evaluate this information to see if it is relevant
and valid for your research.

12. Journals
• For example, if you are doing formal scientific
research you will probably want to rely on
peer-reviewed articles (validated and checked
by academics).
• Avoid advertorials
• Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

13. Research Paper Structure
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• References

14. Abstract
• Advertisement for the paper
• Summary of paper
– Reason for performing the study
– Hypothesis
– Important results
– Implications of the findings

15. Introduction
• Background to the study
• Brief overview of the current state of the field
– Citing of other people’s work
“The function of tendons can be classified into two
categories: tensile force transmission, and storage of
elastic strain energy during locomotion (Ker et al., 1988,
2000; Shadwick, 1990; Pollock and Shadwick, 1994).”
(Maganaris and Paul, 2002)

16. Introduction
• Background to the study
• Brief overview of the current state of the field
– Citing other people’s work
• How the authors arrived at their research question
• Why this is the most important question in the
world!
• HYPOTHESIS
– Simple
– Easily answered

17. Results
• What they found
• Visual representation of the data
– Graphs
– Tables
• Good figure legends
• Description of their results - no
discussion of the implications

18. References
• Expansion of the citations in the text
• Record of the authors, title and journal where the
papers were published
• Critically important to avoid plagiarism – must
include the sources of all information that is other
people’s intellectual property
• Two citation methods
– Harvard System
– Numeric System
• Individual journals will request specific methods

19. Reading a research paper
• Skimming
– Check if article is for you
– Topic sentence at start of paragraph
– May miss arguments
• Scanning
– Concentrate on parts of interest
– Identify key facts
– Useful if clear goal in mind

20. Evaluating websites
Ask questions:
• Who is the publisher?
• Who sponsored or funded the site?
• Do you recognise them as an authoritative source?
• What are their credentials, qualifications, background, experience?
• Has the information been edited or peer reviewed?
• Are the sources trustworthy?
• What are their motives for publishing the information?
• What standpoint do they take: impartial? biased?
• Do other Internet sources that you trust link to this site?

21. Evaluating websites
• Photographs of the author or offices of the
organisation.
• A copyright statement to help establish the
owner.
• Consider how you came by the site- was it a
link from a trusted source?
• The URL (.gov; .ac.uk; .edu)
• Anyone can set up a dot.org (.org)

22. Wikipedia
• Wikipedia can be a useful place to start
looking for information - references
• Wise NOT to cite it in your project/dissertation
without good cause
• Most other popular sources of information eg
ask.com, yahoonews etc – don’t use

23. Examples – Google search
• Energy Resources : wind power
<http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/wind.htm>
• Energy Saving Trust
<http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/>

24. Critical thinking
• Describe, analyse, evaluate
• Asking questions – don’t accept at face value
• What, where, who, when, how, why, what if,
so what, what next...

25. Critical thinking checklist
Difference between “belief” and “evidence”
Identify what's important:
• What are the key ideas, problems, arguments,
observations, findings, conclusions?
• What evidence is there?
• Distinguish critical from other types of writing
(eg descriptive); fact from opinion; bias from
reason

26. Evaluate what you find:
• Explore the evidence - does it convince?
• What assumptions are being made and inferences
drawn?
• Is there engagement with relevant, up to date
research?
• How appropriate are the methods of investigation?
• Is there a consistent and logical line of reasoning?
• Do you agree with what's being said? Why?
• How is language being used (emotive, biased etc.)?

27. Look beyond what you're reading/hearing:
• What other viewpoints, interpretations and
perspectives are there? What's the evidence
for these? How do they compare?
• How does your prior knowledge and
understanding relate to these
ideas, findings, observations etc.?
• What are the implications of what you're
reading/hearing?

28. Clarifying your point of view:
• Weigh up the relevant research in the area
• Find effective reasons and evidence for your
views
• Reach conclusions on the basis of your
reasoning
• Illustrate your reasons with effective examples

29. Critical thinking exercise
• Test your critical thinking skills
http://lis.tees.ac.uk/infoskills_gen/critical/exercise.cfm

30. Citing and referencing websites
• It is easy to copy information from the
Internet
• You need to acknowledge all sources of
information
• http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/Harvardguide.pdf

31. Stella Cottrell
Critical Thinking Skills
Class No: 371.3 COT
Support materials (mp3 file):
http://www.palgrave.com/skills4study/

32. Additional titles
• Thinking critically about critical thinking /
• Thinking critically about critical thinking / by Diane F. Halpern.
Lawrence Erlbaum, 1996. 153.42 HAL
• Writing science through critical thinking / by Marilyn F. Moriarty.
Jones and Bartlett, 1997. 810.61 MOR
• Critical thinking : a concise guide / by Tracy Bowell and Gary Kemp [eBook].
3rd ed. London : Routledge, 2010.
• Critical thinking and analysis / by Mary Deane and Erik Borg.
Publisher:Pearson, 2011. Class. Number:371.3 DEA

33. For more information
http://www.hw.ac.uk/library
Contact subject librarian:
http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/librarians.html

34. Questions
• Linda Kerr
• Research Support Librarian
• l.kerr@hw.ac.uk