Overview

How to Work with Biased Sources

Welcome! My name is Janet Goodrich, and I’ve created this course to help you navigate the issue of bias in sources.

As a student conducting research and writing essays, you have many skills to juggle including getting to know your audience, learning the writing conventions of your major field, and delving into different kinds of evidence. One aspect of research that can make all of these tasks more difficult is encountering bias in source material. How do you handle it? 

What You Will Learn

This course will explore the topic of biased sources through two questions: 

• How do we identify bias in a source? (What tools can we employ? What critical thinking skills can we use?) 
• How do we engage a source that may reflect bias in a productive way for research purposes? 

We will examine these questions and explore a 5-step process to help you make the most of your research and writing for school. 

By the end of this course, you should be able to identify and analyze ideological bias in a current news source. Specifically, you will be able to:

• Identify where on the political spectrum a source is likely to fall
• Analyze bias in a source
• Explain how critically engaging bias in sources affects research

Course Structure

Besides the introductory section and conclusion, this course includes 3 modules:

• Module 1: Identifying Bias 
• Module 2: Analyzing Bias 
• Module 3: Reporting Your Findings 

Each module includes scaffolded instruction through lectures, handouts, videos and readings, plus practice and reflection through discussions and assignments.

You can access all the discussions for the course here. In addition, you will find information about the course including a schedule, grading policies, technical requirements and more in the course syllabus, located in the “Materials” tab for this lesson.

How to Succeed

Your best approach for succeeding in this class is to:

1. Read the syllabus
2. Work through the materials in order
3. Ask any questions as you go along

Let’s get started! View the “Course Overview” video to get a sense of what you will learn.