Week 9 — Research: Finding & Evaluating Sources

Welcome to your Week 9 Start Here page.

Why this matters

A nursing student checking a treatment claim, a small-business owner weighing a market report, and a voter reading a shared link all have to decide whether a source deserves trust before acting on it.

In plain language

Research starts before you quote anyone: it starts when you decide what you are looking for and whether a source deserves your trust. This week you turn a broad subject into a research question (a focused question that evidence can answer). You sort sources by what they are and who they were written for, and you test each one with a credibility checklist (five questions about how recent, relevant, qualified, accurate, and purposeful a source is). You also learn lateral reading (leaving a website to see what other sources say about it), the habit that professional fact checkers rely on. You practice on the running draft's four real sources about phones in class and on small everyday cases.

• Already covered: Weeks 1–8 gave you the rhetorical situation, critical reading, the thesis, argument, and the three-sentence habit.
• This week: research questions, source types, the checklist, and lateral reading.
• How they connect: a source has to earn its place before you use it.
• Where we're going next: Week 10, Integrating Sources, brings sources into your sentences.

Focus

Which sources deserve a place in my essay, and how do I know?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] turn a topic into a research question
• [ ] sort a source as primary or secondary, and as scholarly, popular, or trade
• [ ] run the five-question credibility checklist
• [ ] read a website laterally and name its purpose

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 9 (about 45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
3. Do the Writing Studio (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
4. Take the quiz.

Checkpoint: read one site laterally and say what its own pages left out.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

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