Two sources give different answers, and your project deadline is approaching. Choosing the one that sounds more confident is tempting. A better first move is to find out whether they are actually answering the same question.
One page might count a whole country while another covers a city. A historical account might describe what people believed at the time, while a later study evaluates whether that belief was justified. A disagreement can disappear once the scope is made explicit—or become much more interesting.
Write each claim in a single sentence
Put the claims side by side in your own words. Preserve important limits such as “in this survey,” “during this period” or “among the people interviewed.” If those limits vanish from your notes, your comparison can become misleading even when both original sources were careful.
Imagine two illustrative reports about a school library. One says visits increased; another says borrowing declined. Both could be correct if more students used the room to study without taking books home. Your project should explain that distinction instead of treating the figures as a simple contradiction.
Leave the page to investigate its source
Look for the author or organisation, relevant expertise, publication date and original evidence. Then check what other reliable sources say about them. A professional-looking About page is a claim made by the publisher, not independent confirmation of its reliability.
The Digital Inquiry Group’s lateral-reading lesson teaches students to investigate a source by going beyond the website itself. You can apply that habit to a news story, an organisation’s report or a post shared on social media.
Follow the evidence back one step
If a page says “research shows,” find the research. Does it support the exact statement, or only something narrower? Note whether a number comes from a survey, administrative records, an estimate or an opinion. These methods answer different kinds of questions.
Keep a compact comparison record: claim, scope, date, evidence and remaining uncertainty. Save the original URL and the date you accessed it. This is easier than trying to reconstruct your reading from a browser history the night before submission.
Explain what you can and cannot conclude
You do not have to force every conflict into a winner and loser. Your conclusion might be that the sources cover different periods, that one has stronger evidence, or that the available information cannot resolve the issue.
In your project, show the reasoning: “These accounts differ because one measures visits and the other measures loans.” Cite both sources when both are relevant. If you reject a claim, explain the evidence problem rather than attacking the author. A careful comparison demonstrates research skill more clearly than a long bibliography you have not evaluated.