Touchstones are projects that illustrate your comprehension of the course material, help you refine skills, and demonstrate application of knowledge. You can work on a Touchstone anytime, but you can’t submit it until you have completed the unit’s Challenges. Once you’ve submitted a Touchstone, it will be graded and counted toward your final course score.

Touchstone 2.1: Evaluate a Source

ASSIGNMENT: For this essay, you will select one of the sources you have found through your preliminary research about your research topic. Which source you choose is up to you; however, it should be substantial enough that you will be able to talk about it at length, and intricate enough that it will keep you (and your reader) interested.

In order to foster learning and growth, all essays you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any recycled work will be sent back with a 0, and you will be given one attempt to redo the Touchstone.

The introduction of this paper will involve introducing the source: Provide the author, the title, and the context (where you found the source, where it was originally published, who sponsored it, etc.)

You will then go on to evaluate the source on two levels:

1. Credibility: Using the information in this unit as a guide, evaluate the source’s authenticity and reliability. Look at all the information that you can find about the source to establish the author’s (or sponsor’s) trustworthiness.
2. Usefulness: Using a combination of summary and analysis, examine the source on a critical level. Determine what the source’s purpose (thesis) is, and how it arrives at that goal. Examine its value to you and the project you are working on. How will it help you prove your own points? How might it come in handy to back up a claim (or address a counter-claim)?

Finally, you will include a conclusion which shows your final assessments on both counts.

Sample Touchstone

A. Assignment Guidelines

DIRECTIONS: Refer to the list below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines.

1. Source Identification

The introduction of this paper will be introducing the source:

❒ Have you provided the author’s name?❒ Have you provided the source title?❒ Have you provided the context (where you found the source, where it was originally published, who sponsored it, etc.)?

2. Source Evaluation

❒ Have you provided a judgment on the source’s credibility?❒ Have you used specific examples from the source to illustrate your judgment on credibility?❒ Have you provided a judgment on the source’s usefulness?❒ Have you used specific examples from the source to illustrate your judgment on usefulness?

3.

Reflection

❒ Have you answered all reflection questions thoughtfully and included insights, observations, and/or examples in all responses?
❒ Are your answers included on a separate page below the main assignment?

B. Reflection Questions

DIRECTIONS: Below your assignment, include answers to all of the following reflection questions.

1. What types of questions did you ask yourself when evaluating the credibility and usefulness of your source? (2-3 sentences)
2. How do you feel this evaluation practice will help you as you continue to move through the research process? (2-3 sentences)

C. Rubric

Advanced (90-100%)Proficient (80-89%)Acceptable (70-79%)Needs Improvement (50-69%)Non-Performance (0-49%)

Thesis Statement

Provide a clear thesis statement with sufficient support.The thesis statement consists of an original observation that is clear, focused, and well-supported.The thesis statement consists of an original observation that is adequately supported.The thesis statement consists of an identifiable main idea that is generally supported.The thesis statement consists of an identifiable main idea, but it is not not well supported or does not match most of essay’s content.The thesis statement is missing or completely unsupported.

Evidence and Analysis

Evaluate a single source based on the characteristics of credibility and usefulness.The analysis includes specific examples from the text as support; claims for credibility and usefulness are fully developed.The analysis includes examples from the text as support; claims for credibility and usefulness are adequately developed.The analysis includes some examples from the text, though they potentially vague or abstract; claims for credibility and usefulness are established but need further development.The analysis includes one or two examples from the text, but they are of a vague, abstract nature; claims for either credibility or usefulness are missing.The analysis includes little to no examples for support; there are no established claims for either credibility or usefulness.

Organization

Exhibit competent organizational writing techniques.Presents all of the required components of a source evaluation essay, including an engaging introduction with background information and a clear thesis, a body paragraph or paragraphs addressing the source’s credibility, a body paragraph or paragraphs addressing the source’s usefulness, and a conclusion with a concluding statement.Presents all of the required components of a source evaluation essay, including an introduction with background information and a clear thesis, a body paragraph or paragraphs addressing the source’s credibility, a body paragraph or paragraphs addressing the source’s usefulness, and a conclusion with a concluding statement.Presents nearly all of the required components of a source evaluation essay; however, one component is missing.Presents most of the required components of a source evaluation essay, but is lacking two components; sequences ideas and paragraphs such that the connections between ideas (within and between paragraphs) are sometimes unclear and the reader may have difficulty following the progression of the essay.Lacks several or all of the components of a source evaluation essay; sequences ideas and paragraphs such that the connections between ideas (within and between paragraphs) are often unclear and the reader has difficulty following the progression of the essay.

Style

Establish a consistent, informative tone and make thoughtful stylistic choices.Demonstrates thoughtful and effective word choices, avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a wide variety of sentence structures.Demonstrates effective word choices, primarily avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a variety of sentence structures.Demonstrates generally effective style choices, but may include occasional redundancies, imprecise language, poor word choice, and/or repetitive sentence structures.Frequently includes poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures.Consistently demonstrates poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures.

Conventions

Follow conventions for standard written English.There are only a few, if any, negligible errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are occasional minor errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are some significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are frequent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are consistent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.

Reflection

Answer reflection questions thoroughly and thoughtfully.Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; consistently includes insights, observations, and/or examples in all responses, following or exceeding response length guidelines.Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; includes multiple insights, observations, and/or examples, following response length guidelines.Primarily demonstrates thoughtful reflection, but some responses are lacking in detail or insight; primarily follows response length guidelines.Shows limited reflection; the majority of responses are lacking in detail or insight, with some questions left unanswered or falling short of response length guidelines.No reflection responses are present.

D. Requirements

The following requirements must be met for your submission to be graded:

Include all of the assignment components in a single file.

Acceptable file formats include and x.

E. Additional Resources

The following resources will be helpful to you as you work on this assignment:

1. Purdue Online Writing Lab’s APA Formatting and Style Guide

   This site includes a comprehensive overview of APA style, as well as individual pages with guidelines for specific citation types.

2. Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style

   This page on the official APA website addresses common questions related to APA formatting. The “References,” “Punctuation,” and “Grammar and Writing Style” sections will be the most useful to your work in this course.

3. APA Style: Quick Answers—References

   This page on the official APA Style website provides numerous examples of reference list formatting for various source types.

Sophia Pathways for College Credit –

English Composition II

SAMPLE TOUCHSTONE AND SCORING

Logan Stevens

English Composition II

December 20, 2016

Source Evaluation on “Salmon: Their Fight for Survival” by Anthony Netboy.

In my research paper I am arguing that there is a dire need for extra protection of wild

salmon and steelhead on the west coast; particularly in Washington, Oregon, and northern

California, where once very large wild fish stocks are dwindling near extinction. Hatcheries have

helped slow the decline of these fisheries, but are not a substitute for truly wild fish. In my

research I came across a book entitled “Salmon: Their Fight for Survival” by Anthony Netboy. I

found this to be an unreliable source for my essay due to its broadness, its tendency toward bias,

the inaccuracy in information, and its age.

Netboy’s book has several problems with it; the first of which being its broadness. I am

looking for information about fisheries of the pacific coast. This book gives information on

“[s]almon catches in Norway” (Netboy 152) and “[s]almon in Great Britain” (45) as well as

some tidbits about pacific salmon catches, and some information about dams on the Columbia

River, however it was mostly things that were not backed up by another source.

Another problem I saw in this source is some of the way it was worded made it feel

Commented [SL1]: Good thesis. It explains your stance on
its credibility and the reasons why you believe it to be
unreliable.

Commented [2]: See note below on organization.

Sophia Pathways for College Credit – English Composition II
SAMPLE TOUCHSTONE AND SCORING

biased and opinionated rather than presenting straight hard facts. For example; in one section

they are talking about the decline of the California salmon fisheries. The language the author

uses seems biased in my eyes. I agree with his opinion, but I’m not looking for an opinion, I’m

looking for facts.

The fate of California’s salmon mirrors the state’s use and misuse of many of its

natural resources. In the last half of the century a serene land of indefinetly varied

landscapes… was invaded by hordes of people from the ends of America and

abroad seeking riches…In the process rivers and watersheds were turned topsy-

turvy, farmlands were bulldozed and covered with towns, cities, and Cyclopean

highways…Like other forms of aquatic life, many of the salmon became victims

of this unparalleled destruction. (Netboy 235)

The use of several words and phrases, such as “hordes” and “this unparalleled destruction” say to

me that he is using his own opinion and not fact, thereby making the source somewhat biased,

and not very useful.

Also, in some of this work, there are tables, showing salmon catches in different regions.

I noticed that the numbers are not matching up with some of my other research. I have records of

fish counts from the Bonnevelle Dam on the Columbia River. According to the book there were

384,780 chinook salmon that passed through Bonnevelle Dam in 1970 (Netboy 548). However

according to the records kept on the Columbia Basin Fisheires, only 314,032 chinook salmon

were counted. This may seem a small difference to some but when one thinks of all the rivers

and tributaries on the Columbia it adds up rather fast. 70,000 fish can be an entire river’s worth

of fish for a season. This discrepancy only goes to show this as an unreliable source.

Commented [3]: Excellent point!

Commented [4]: This is a good point. In order to be truly
helpful, a source should be comprised of facts trends.
When there is bias, it can skew the information that is
being presented.

Commented [5]: The organization of your paper could
have been enhanced if this paragraph was placed after
your second paragraph. That one ended with the
statement that not all of the facts in the book were
backed up another source. Could have been a good
lead-in!

Commented [6]: Good use of another source to check
validity!

Sophia Pathways for College Credit – English Composition II
SAMPLE TOUCHSTONE AND SCORING

The final problem with this source I found is the date of publication. It was originally

published in 1974 by Houghton Mifflin. This source is over 30 years old. There are many more

modern sources that have updated and more accurate information, along with research to back it

up. For example the book “[t]he Behavior and Ecology of Pacific Salmon and Trout” by Thomas

P. Quinn has many tables and years worth of research gathered by the author himself and

compared with other research that has been conducted. It was published in 2005, giving it a bit

more relevance due to modern scientific research.

In conclusion, I have deemed this source as unhelpful and unreliable. An effective source

should be relevant, recent, backed by research, and factual. This source has flaws with all four of

those things, not to mention with the vast amount of information about specific parts of the globe

that I am not arguing for in my argumentative essay. Although it contains some information that

might help build background information on my topic, it will not be useful to me with my thesis

statement in mind.

Commented [7]: Good concluding paragraph! Nice
summary of your points from above.

Sophia Pathways for College Credit – English Composition II
SAMPLE TOUCHSTONE AND SCORING

Works Cited

1. Columbia Basin Fisheries and Tribes. “Annual Adult Salmon Totals” (04/22/2008): web (02/10/2010).

.

2. Netboy, Antony. “The Salmon: Their Fight for Survival” Houghton Mifflin. (1974): 45, 152, 235, 548.

Print.

Reflection Questions:

1. What are some of the things you thought about when initially reading through this
source? What types of questions do you ask yourself when it comes to evaluating the
validity/reliability of a source?

I’ve learned that a good source to use for accurate research should be recent, reliable, and
factual. Those are the main things that I considered throughout my analysis of the source.

2. How does this practice enhance your argumentative essay overall?

By making sure all of my sources are reliable, recent, and factual, I am able to strengthen
my argument on this topic and back it up with factual evidence. An argument will be easy
to debunk if it doesn’t have the data and facts to support it.

Sophia Pathways for College Credit – English Composition II
SAMPLE TOUCHSTONE AND SCORING

Source Evaluation Essay Rubric and Feedback

Rubric
Category

Feedback Score
(acceptable, needs
improvement etc.)

Thesis You have a great thesis here. It takes a clear
stance on the issue and you are very clear about
why.

10/10

Proficient

Evidence and
Analysis

You do an outstanding job of including points
from the source that adequately support your
analysis. I can see how you’ve done your
research.

10/10
Proficient

Organization A few elements of your organization could be
tweaked to enhance the flow, but not to the point
where it is hard to follow.

3/5

Proficient

Style, Editing,
and Proofreading

You have done a great job ensuring there are no
major convention errors.

5/5

Proficient

Citations and
Formatting

You do a great job using APA format in your
essay.

5/5
Proficient

Think About Your
Writing

You have provided thoughtful responses to the
reflection questions. Well done.

5/5
Proficient

Overall Score and Feedback: 48/50

I think you really know your stuff when it comes to this topic! It shows throughout your analysis
of the source you chose. I think you do a bit more brainstorming when you are putting your
essays together in the future. The organization of your information can take a good paper and
make it a great paper.