Shauna has collected a variety of sources for her research about Charlie Chaplin's impact on American cinema. In performing her preliminary evaluation of each source, Shauna should

-thoroughly review and examine the content.

-perform a quick search to determine the author's reliability.

-check whether the author agrees with experts on the subject.

-decide whether it will be useful in her final essay.

perform a quick search to determine the author's reliability.

The correct answer is "perform a quick search to determine the author's reliability."

Indeed, determining the reliability of a source is inextricably linked to the determination of the reliability of the source's author since it will necessarily affect the quality of the source's findings. The author might be a respectable scholar/professional of his/her field or be a charlatan or a ferocious ideologue that is subjective and obscures facts or misrepresents findings in order to advance an ideological agenda.

There is also the issue of fallibility; the findings might be incorrect based on a myriad of factors (technological knowledge and advancement at the time of the work that might prove incorrect as new research or information becomes available, political or social environment hindering the research of the author, flawed methodology, etc.).

Of course, this is only a preliminary evaluation and certain parts of the source's research might still be usable and/or relevant but determining the author's reliability provides valuable insight to the new researcher on how to evaluate the source's work.