COM 103 The Oral Communication Process

Credible, reliable, trustworthy, authoritative - these are all words to describe sources that you can trust to contain accurate information. All your sources for any speech should be credible.

One method you can use to evaluate the credibility of a given source is the SIFT method. This method consists of four moves that help you look at the source in the larger information context around your topic. It is designed to be completed quickly so you can determine which sources aren't appropriate and which ones are worth more in-depth consideration.

Relevancy describes how useful a resource will be for meeting your needs. Sometimes a very credible or reliable source can turn out to be not relevant for your topic. Here are a few things to look at when determining whether a source is relevant or not. 

• Currency

  • How recently was the resource created?
  • Some topics, especially in health and politics, develop very quickly, and you need to look for the most up-to-date information.
  • Older sources might not be relevant any more.

• Bias

  • Every author has at least some biases. Having bias doesn't necessarily mean that something isn't reliable.
  • But if an author is too biased, they might avoid engaging with certain aspects of your topic, or not give you the full story, and the source won't have all the information you need.
  • You may need to seek out less biased sources, or multiple sources to cover the issue from all angles.

• Purpose

  • People can write things for different reasons: to report, to contextualize,  to persuade.
  • They can also write for different audiences - for example, expert audiences, general audience, or very young audiences.
  • Make sure that how the topic is being covered works for your purposes as well.
  • Make sure the information is at an appropriate level for your audience.