Lateral reading is a technique that can help you evaluate the authority of information resources.
When we evaluate an information resource, we are looking for descriptions or discussions of the resource. Lateral reading involves searching for these descriptions outside of the resource itself.
I.e., instead of heading for the About page of a website, the lateral reader starts with: the Wikipedia page for the website, and for the person(s) or organization(s) behind the website; with coverage in trusted news sources; with searchable public records; etc.
Learn more about Lateral Reading in our guide to Source Evaluation Techniques.
Joseph Bizup's BEAM provides a conceptual framework for understanding the ways that writers engage with their sources, and is outlined in:
Bizup, Joseph. “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing.” Rhetoric Review, vol. 27, no. 1, 2008, pp. 72–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20176824.
The excerpts below provide definitions for the BEAM categories.
"I use the terms background and background source to refer to materials whose claims a writer accepts as fact, whether these "facts" are taken as general information or deployed as evidence to support the writer's own assertions. Writers regard their background sources as authoritative and expect their readers to do the same. Because writers sometimes treat information gleaned from their background sources as "common knowledge," they may sometimes leave these sources uncited." (Bizup 75)
"I use the terms exhibit and exhibit source to refer to materials a writer offers for explication, analysis, or interpretation. Materials used as background, argument, or method sources tend to be prose texts, but anything that can be represented in discourse can potentially serve as an exhibit. The simplest sort of exhibit is the example, a concrete instance offered to illustrate some more general claim or assertion. Examples often require little additional explication, but complex exhibits can demand extensive framing and interpretation." (Bizup 75)
"I use the terms argument and argument source to refer to materials whose claims a writer affirms, disputes, refines, or extends in some way. To invoke a common metaphor, argument sources are those with which writers enter into "conversation." In professional academic writing, there is a strong correlation between the genres in which writers work and the genres of their argument sources […]" (Bizup 75-76)
"I use the terms method and method source to refer to materials from which a writer derives a governing concept or a manner of working. A method source can offer a set of key terms, lay out a particular procedure, or furnish a general model or perspective. Like background sources, method sources can sometimes go uncited […]" (Bizup 75-76)
The following research guides may be helpful as you are evaluating sources for your annotated bibliography.