A true number about the wrong place
A report says, "Nine in ten homes have fast internet." It is a good report. Its figures are checked.
But it counts homes in one big city. You are studying a small village. The report is true and still wrong for your job.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Context | the situation around a fact: which place, which group, which time | |
| Appropriate | right for your job and at the right level of detail | |
| Target audience | the people a source was written for | |
| Technical terms | special words used by people who work in a field | |
| Version | a numbered release of a document or a tool | version 3.1 |
| Publication date | the day a source was first shared | |
| Outdated | too old to be right now |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can check a source for context, fit, audience, version and date.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Five checks of fit
| Check | Ask | A good sign | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relevant context | Is it about my place, group and time? | Same region, same age group | About somewhere else |
| Appropriate data | Is the detail right for my job? | Counts by town, as I need | Only a country total |
| Target audience | Who was it written for? | Plain words for managers, technical terms for analysts | Written for the wrong reader |
| Version | Is this the current version? | Version number matches mine | An older version |
| Publication date | Is it recent enough? | This year | Many years old |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Audience and technical terms
A page for managers uses plain words, such as "average". A page for analysts may use technical terms, such as "median" and "outlier".
Pick the one that suits your reader. A source for the wrong reader can leave out detail you need, or bury you in words you cannot use.
Version and date are two checks
Data and reports are updated. Match the version first. Then read the publication date. A page published years ago may be outdated, for example a survey of phone use from before most people had a smartphone.
A new date does not make a page right. It is one check of five.
Run it: how old is each source?
years = [2025, 2021, 2012, 2024]
this_year = 2026
limit = 5
for year in years:
age = this_year - year
if age > limit:
print(year, "is", age, "years old: outdated")
else:
print(year, "is", age, "years old: ok")