Ask yourself: Is what I'm finding reliable? Test your sources against this checklist from the Modern Language Association (MLA):
This checklist will help you determine whether a source is likely to provide credible, trustworthy information. The link opens to a downloadable document.
Think carefully about the sources you are finding and using. Here are some tools that can help:
Currency - How recent is the information?
Reliability - What kind of information is included in the resource? Is it balanced? Does the creator provide references or sources for data or quotations?
Authority - Who is the creator or author? Who is the publisher or sponsor? What is the author's or publisher's interest (if any) in this information?
Accuracy - Is the content readable? Is the content truthful? Is the content correct?
You can make your Google web search more precise. For example:
Here are Google's own search tips.
For an online form that you can fill in, try Google Advanced Search.
Wikipedia can give you quick background for your own knowledge and help you orient yourself to a topic if you know nothing about it
You may get ideas for search terms and key words to use in library tools.
While in most cases professors will not accept a Wikipedia entry as a cited source, the links at the end of it (pointing to sources that editors used) may lead you to citable sources.