2. • When YOU do a
Google search,
HOW do you decide
what results are
good?
• What would help
you be better at
evaluating
information?

3. Ability to evaluate ANY
type of information
source to see if it meets
your needs

5. • Most students consider FORMAT to
be THE most important criterion for
selecting sources
• Joe Student: “INTERNET is best!!!”
• “A source should be judged for what it
contains, NOT how it is stored or
produced” (Quaratiello, 2011, p. 21).

6. Content
Format

7. “While evaluating the information you
find in books and periodicals is
important, evaluating web-based
material is absolutely crucial”
(Quaratiello, 2011, p. 20).

8. Quality
Quantity

9. Often hard to tell:
1. WHO wrote the info
2. WHO published the info
3. HOW accurate it is
4. WHERE they got their info
5. WHEN it was posted

10. • Relevance/Credibility Model
• CARS Model
•CRAAP Test

12. • Currency
• Relevance
• Authority
• Accuracy
• Purpose

15. • DATE the item was published (or last
updated)

16. •Is the information
current enough
for your research
needs?

17. •Is the most
current
information
always the best?

18. MOST CURRENT
• Science
• Health/medicine
• Business
OLDER SOURCES
• Historical topics
• Humanities
• Literature
When do older sources work well?

20. • Does the information relate
appropriately to your topic or help
answer your research question?
• Who is the intended audience?

21. • WHOM is it written for?
• Consider your own level
of knowledge in selecting
a source.

22. • Is it at a level that you can
understand and use?
–Too easy
–Too difficult
Ask yourself: Would you be
comfortable citing this source in
your research paper?

24. • QUALIFICATIONS of the writer
- Image copyrighted by Wikimedia foundation

25. • Expert in field/ subject matter expert
• “Peer review”
• On websites: Look for About link
• Contact information
– Publisher
– Email address

26. • .com
• .org
• .edu
• .gov

28. • Different types of sources pull their
information from different places.
• The type of source can give you an
idea of where the information they
used came from.

29. At what stage of the cycle
of information was your
source written?
And what does this
mean?

30. Turn on the
News
Newspapers
Magazines
Scholarly
Journals
Event
Happens
Books

31. • As an event occurs, you get live
reporting and footage.
• Immediately after an event, you get
more reporting and eyewitness
accounts.
• The further away from an event that
you get, the more ANALYSIS you will
find. • News Analysis
• Expert Analysis
• Scholarly Analysis

32. • Are the sources listed?
– Are they scholarly?
– Are they popular?
– Are they credible?
– How old are they?
• Can they be checked?

33. A source with verifiable sources of
information

34. • Has the information been reviewed or
refereed?

35. “With clear documentation, a
reader can hypothetically check
the ACCURACY of a given
source”(Quaratiello, 2011, p. 29).

37. • Absence of errors – spelling,
grammar, typos

39. • WHY the item was written

40. Entertain

41. A source that is informational and
unbiased.

42. POINT OF VIEW
• Every source is going
to have a point of view.
• Does the author tell you
his/her point of view?
• Are both sides
presented?
• Is information
presented fairly?
BIAS
• Some sources have a
BIASED point of view.
• Is one side presented
exclusively or far more
than the other?
• Is charged or emotional
language used?

44. • Evaluate what a simple Google search
on your topic provides
• Practice using the CRAAP Test
– Evaluate the 2 Web sources you found
last week

45. • Practice using the CRAAP Test on
scholarly sources
• Evaluate
– Scholarly Journal Article
– eBook

46. • Find a scholarly journal article on your
topic using Google Scholar
– Cite it in MLA or APA
– Evaluate it using CRAAP Test

47. • Keep | Start | Stop
• List ONE thing you would like your
instructor to KEEP, START, and STOP
doing.
• List ONE thing YOU would like to
KEEP, START, and STOP doing in
order to do well in this course.

48. Quaratiello, A. (2011). The college
student’s research companion:
Finding, evaluating, and citing the
resources you need to succeed (5th
ed.). New York, NY: Neal-Schuman.