Provenance involves getting relevant information about the academic background and the work of the author whose work you are critically evaluating. These pieces of information will give you clues about the reliability of the author's ideas and claims. The market report of a holder of PhD in Marketing, for instance, would prove more reliable than a similar report from an undergraduate Marketing student. Similarly, if you knew that academics frequently cite the works of a particular author, you can better trust his ideas and claims than those of an author whose views are usually controversial.
To critically assess the quality of a piece of work, you need to know how relevant it is to the theme it is dealing with. Do its ideas, information and details directly relate to the theme? Does the author approach it appropriately, using authoritative sources of information? Does she present it in a too simple or complicated manner for the specified audience? Ask yourself such questions as you evaluate the work.
The more objective a piece of work is, the higher its quality. Objectivity is a logical assessment of information and an unbiased development of opinion. A piece of writing that does not intelligently analyze the information it uses in order to reach reasonable conclusions, lacks logical assessment of information. On the other hand, a report based on many unspecified religious assumptions shows a good deal of bias (Unless you knew of such assumptions, you would be unable to understand the report completely).
Critical evaluation also concerns judging the suitability of the method the author has used. The method is the approach. The method of television political debate would be different from the method of a written academic discussion. Similarly, a good author would not use the same research method for a sociological theme as she would use for a theme on economics. Use your knowledge of the method most appropriate to a subject as a yardstick for assessing the method an author has adopted in dealing with a theme on that subject.
Presentation is about form and style. Does the author use suitable language? Does he logically structure his work? If it is a typeset piece of academic work, does he use an appropriate font size or color? Are there too few or too many illustrations? A good piece of academic work would have a formal rather than an informal tone: was the author's tone formal or informal? To critically evaluate the work's presentation, ask yourself such questions.
The information an author uses in her work must have a date of production. The date determines how relevant the information is to theme of the work. Ensure that the information is not obsolete and that it meets any date-related requirements that the theme directly or indirectly necessitates. For instance, an author should not use information on the rate and pattern of abortion in Great Britain three years ago in a piece of writing that makes claims about the current trend of abortion in the country.