Read everything, captions, text. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you.
Just because a source is not 100% reliable does not mean that it isn't trustworthy/useful.
HAPPY is like sounding out sources.
Historical Context
Audience
Purpose
Point of View
WhY
Historical Context is what was happening at that time from a 3rd person omnicient pov.
Historical Situation is s what that source was going through. A 1st person or 3rd person limited pov.
Circa is another word for around the time. It can be used if historians aren't sure when it is made then they would estimate.
If not all the information is found from the tag of the speaker, you can use your context clues from the excerpt to figure it out.
Some answers to multiple choice questions can come directly from the source line. Do not ignore the source line.
Context matters. This phrase can also be called Contextualization.
Audience and Purpose matters because they can affect how reliable the source is. Creators may edit or leave out information in their source depending whose reading it.
If you are reporting to your advisor then you may not talk about the truth, just to what you want them to hear. If you are writing to convince people, then you might not mention the downfalls just the positive.
Therefore, you have to consider the audience and purpose while thinking about how reliable it is.
Point of View
Establish what was happening from the creator's pov.
Who was the creator and what might they have been experiencing when they were writing this,
Find out as much as you can about the author.
What is the author's pov about the subject at discussion.
Why
Why is the source important or useful in the situation.
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