Week of March 8th

This week, you should know which cause you will be focusing on for your essay.  You've moved on from the simple reference materials such as encyclopedias, Wikipedia, etc., and are now looking at resources that are more in-depth.  These may be books, magazine or newspaper articles, videos, or websites.  When you look at these types of sources, you need to make sure that you are paying attention to the possibility that these sources may contain bias or may be unreliable.  Your teacher may have provided you with a number of different resources, such as the "Web Page Evaluation Checklist,"  that can help you determine whether or not your sources are reliable.

If a source is biased, does that mean it is useless or unreliable?  No, it simply means that you must fact check.  Try to find info in other sources that helps you varify what the biased source tells you.   Everyone has a bias, or point of view.   Sometimes, authors or reporters work very hard to try to eliminate their bias as much as possible.  Others are very open about their bias.  Most are somewhere in the middle.  This is why you need to look at many different sources, so that you can be sure that the info you find is reliable.

Having trouble?  The library is open the rest of this week after school for help.  Teachers and librarians can help you-- all you have to do is ask.