English for Academic Purposes

Choosing the right resource for your assignment requires you to think critically about what information you need and where that information came from. It is important to evaluate every source you use in your assignments to make sure the information is reliable and relevant to your topic.

As the video at right from from Brock University (2020) explains, choosing the right source for your assignment depends on context. Not every source you use in your assignment needs to be scholarly or academic in nature. For example, information from a company or organization's website may provide valuable information on the structure and organization of the company. 

When evaluating your sources, it is important to think about where the source came from, why it was created, and who wrote it. One handy way to remember this is the PARCA test. PARCA stands for Purpose, Authority, Relevance, Currency, and Accuracy. 

PURPOSE

Ask yourself, why was this source created? What is it's purpose for existing? 

• Was it created for educational purposes? For entertainment? For profit (i.e., to make money)?
• Are there any biases present? 
• Is the information presented as fact or an opinion?

AUTHORITY

Authority asks you to think about who wrote the source. Does the author have the authority to speak on the subject? Ask yourself:

• Who is the author?
• Does the author have the necessary experience to be writing about the topic? Experience can be ...
  • educational, i.e., the author has an advanced degree or research experience in/on the subject
  • professional, i.e., the author has experience working in the field
  • lived, for example, Indigenous Knowledge Keepers have lived experiences related to topics around Indigeneity
• Who published the source? e.g., academic publisher vs. popular magazine (also relates back to purpose)

RELEVANCE

Is the source relevant to your assignment? Be honest with yourself! It can be tempting to use the first source you find but with so many sources available to you, both through the library and beyond, you want to choose the best evidence to support your assignment. Ask yourself:

• Does the source support your point of view or does it provide an alternative perspective?
• Is the information provided too broad? Is it too narrow or focused?
• Is the source well-used by other researchers in this subject area or discipline?

CURRENCY

How current is your source? If you are researching a recent event or a new idea, is your source up to date?

• When was the source published? Sometimes it can take a long time for a source to be published. It may have been published recently but written several years ago.
• Is there any data presented? If so, when was the data collected?
• How has conversation around this topic changed in the last 5, 10, or 20 years? 

ACCURACY

Does the source provide accurate evidence to support its claims? How do you know?

• Does the source contain any citations?
• Can you verify the claims being made?
• Are there any spelling or grammatical errors?