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Information Literacy Tutorial: Choosing Sources

Learn how to find, evaluate, and manage sources with this guide.

Writing with Sources

Make sure to collect sources that are relevant to your research question and check that your sources meet the requirements for your assignment. 

Available Sources

Scholarly sources are available in both print and electronic forms. Traditionally, scholarly sources were books, journal articles, and newspaper articles. Today websites, blogs, podcasts, or videos can be suitable, depending on the subject of study.

 Chart comparing scholarly sources

 

 

Source Currency

Currency of sources

Above is a graphic showing sources based on how current their information is, going from least current to most current.

 Photos courtesy of Reference, Research, and Scholarly Services at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 4 Nov. 2014. Based on chart from Information Literacy Tutorial: Module 2 at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.