Evaluating Your Sources
Selecting materials to use in your paper requires careful evaluation of each item you have collected. Critical thinkers analyze the data they've retrieved. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself:
- Have you selected materials published by well respected, mainstream publishers or journals?
- Have you selected unreliable sources such as a blog or websites like Wikipedia?
Wikipedia may be OK to use for gathering background information but should not be used as a source for your assignment. Anyone can put information on the web but databases contain articles from scholarly journals and other respected publications. The library buys subscriptions to databases and periodicals so you can have trusted information to use for your research rather than unreliable, questionable information you may find on the World Wide Web.
For more information about Evaluation of Web Resources see our Web searching and evaluating websites handout.
Additional government websites
These are additional free websites that may help you with political research.
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Congress.Gov•provides wealth of information about Congress, including links to bills and public laws, the Congressional Record, and roll call votes
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GovTrackTrack activities of the U.S. Congress. Includes ability to set up trackers, by RSS or email
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Open SecretsIdentify the lobbyists that contribute to different political figures, or identify who receives a lot of money from different interest groups.
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Project Vote SmartAllows you to identify your political representatives and information about them (including biographical information, campaign finances, voting records, and interest group ratings). Information available for federal and state representatives.
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Texas Legislature OnlineFind information about Texas politics -- the representatives and the bills -- here. Site also includes links to video broadcasts, votes, and legislation tracking.
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YouTube - House HubFind YouTube videos for your Congressional representative.
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YouTube - Senate HubFind YouTube videos for U.S. Senators
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GovinfoProvides free online full text access to official Federal Government publications, including budget, congressional records, code of federal regulations, education reports and more.
