Evaluating Your Sources
Internet Research and Citation Guide
Evaluating Your Sources

Activity: Evaluating Your Sources

Read and consider these two passages quoted from Websites found in the searches.

On the "Mary Shelley Biography" page in the Mary Shelley and Frankenstein Literary Sources Web site, K. W. Bridges says, "Mary was born during the eigth [sic] year of the French Revolution. She entered the world like the heroine of a Gothic tale: conceived in a secret amour, her birth heralded by storms and portents, attended by tragic drama, and known to thousands through Godwin's memoirs. Percy Shelley would elevate the event to mythic status in his Dedication to The Revolt of Islam" .( from pg. 21 of Romance and Reality by Emily Sunstein.) From infancy, Mary was treated as a unique individual with remarkable parents. High expectations were placed on her potential and she was treated as if she were born beneath a lucky star. Godwin was convinced that babies are born with a potential waiting to be developed. From an early age she was surrounded by famous philosophers, writers, and poets: Coleridge made his first visit when Mary was two years old. Charles Lamb was also a frequent visitor.

Alan Liu provides an abstract of Katherine Hill-Miller's book, My Hideous Progeny: Mary Shelley, William Godwin, and the Father-Daughter Relationship (Univ. Delaware Press, 1995). In the abstract, the following statements are made:

William Godwin, a radical political philosopher and novelist, brought up the. daughter he had with his lover Mary Wollstonecraft to be a thinker and writer. Unusual for the times, he trained her in literature, history, and the power of the rational mind. Yet as Mary Woilstonecraft [sic] Godwin grew into womanhood, her once supportive father rejected her. He distanced himself from her physically and emotionally during her adolescence, perhaps because of the incestuous feelings her developing womanhood called up. After Mary Godwin eloped to France at age sixteen with the married, atheistic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Godwin refused to speak with his daughter for almost two years. After Percy Shelley's death by drowning, Godwin changed once again: he relied on Mary Shelley heavily for emotional comfort and sustenance, and made it clear he wanted her continued financial support. Mary Shelley and her father maintained an intimate, troubled relationship until the day he died.

In what ways are the two passages similar? In what ways are they in conflict? From these passages, determine what is fact and what is speculation. On what basis do you make these determinations? What evidence is used to support the speculations? With which speculations to you agree?

Sometimes it is necessary to do further research to determine what is fact and what is speculation. These writers are trying to persuade you (the audience) to agree with their perspectives. To persuade you, the authors use appeals. Which statements appeal to your emotions? Which statements are based on logic? How can you determine the validity of the information?

Critical to effective persuasion is the ethos or personality of the writer. Visit these Websites to make an attempt at understanding the author's personality. In drawing your conclusions, consider the entire site, from the URL through the external links. Take the author's selection of images into account, too. Look at the language each author uses. The word choices the writers make reveal their attitudes toward the audience. For what type of reader are they writing?

What additional sources would help you evaluate the information from these sites?

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© 1999 by Addison Wesley Longman
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