A source can be trustworthy in one area and irrelevant in another.
The best source depends on the claim.
For example:
What is the deadline for my course assessment?
should be answered from the current authoritative course information.
A general education website is not the authority for that specific deadline.
Likewise:
What does this software option do?
is better answered by current official documentation than by an unrelated discussion about a similar product.
Ask:
Who is responsible for defining this information?
Examples:
Look for the current course or instructor source.
Look for the current institutional policy source.
Look for current official vendor or project documentation.
Look for the responsible government or official legal source when available.
Look for that organization's current official materials.
The source should have authority over the question you are asking.
A primary source comes directly from the person, organization, system, or record responsible for the information.
Examples can include:
Primary does not automatically mean perfect.
It does mean the information comes closer to the source responsible for the claim.
A secondary source may:
That can be valuable when a primary source is difficult to understand.
But if a secondary explanation conflicts with the current authoritative source, use the source that actually controls the domain.
For example, a tutorial can explain how software usually works.
The current official documentation controls what the current supported software says it does.
A search result can be:
Those qualities do not automatically make it authoritative for the question.
Likewise, an AI may quote or summarize a popular website.
You still need to ask whether that source has the right authority.
Suppose you need to verify:
Students may submit the assessment twice.
An official page describing the course in general does not necessarily verify the attempt limit.
You need a source that actually addresses submission attempts.
A source can be authoritative but still not support the exact claim.
Even an official source can be outdated.
Look for evidence such as:
Do not use an older official source when a current authoritative source has replaced it.
A copied document may look official.
A screenshot may show an official page.
A repost may repeat an institutional statement.
Whenever possible, prefer the current original source over an uncontrolled copy.
Copies can become outdated while the authoritative source changes.
An AI response may say:
According to the official policy...
That statement does not make the response itself the official policy.
The authoritative source remains the policy.
Use AI to help:
but verify important claims against the controlling source when the task requires it.
Ask four questions:
A strong source fits all four as closely as possible.
Do not ask only:
Is this source trustworthy?
Ask:
Is this source authoritative for this specific claim, in this specific context, right now?
That question produces stronger verification decisions.