OverviewUW Libraries has a whole guide, Savvy Info Consumers: Evaluating Information, which discusses different types of sources and how to approach evaluating their credibility/reliability. Show
What it means for a source to be credible/reliable can vary depending on the context of its use. Generally, a credible or reliable source is one that experts in your subject domain would agree is valid for your purposes. This can vary, so it is best to use one of the source evaluation methods that best fits your needs. Do remember that credibility is contextual! It is important to critically evaluate sources because using credible/reliable sources makes you a more informed writer. Think about unreliable sources as pollutants to your credibility, if you include unreliable sources in your work, your work could lose credibility as a result. FrameworksThere are certain frameworks that information professionals have put together to help people think critically about the information provided. Some of the methods that UW Libraries suggest are: 5 W Questions (5Ws): This method means thinking critically about each of your sources by answering five questions to determine if the source is credible/reliable. The acceptable answers to these questions will vary depending on your needs. The questions are:
SMART Check: This method is particularly good at evaluating newspaper sources. Like the 5Ws method it also involves answering critical questions about your source. The criteria are:
CRAAP Test: This method provides you with a set of criteria that make a source more or less credible. The criteria are:
Additional HelpIf you would like personalized support from UW Libraries on source evaluation you can
As a student, you will be gathering information from a variety of types of sources for your research projects including books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, specialized databases, and websites. As you examine each source, it is important to evaluate each source to determine the quality of the information provided within it. Common evaluation criteria include: purpose and intended audience, authority and credibility, accuracy and reliability, currency and timeliness, and objectivity or bias. Each of these criteria will be explained in more detail below. Purpose and intended audience
Authority and credibility
Accuracy and reliability
Currency and timeliness
Objectivity or bias
In Summary
Adapted from Burkhardt, J.M & MacDonald, M.C. (2010). Teaching information Literacy: 50 standards-based exercises for college students.Chicago: American Library Association. Which of the following is not found inside a system unit?Note that in most cases, the monitor, keyboard, and mouse will not be found inside the system unit layout. Other names for the system unit include the computer chassis, cabinet, box, tower, enclosure, housing, or simply case.
What is the nonprofit organization that keeps track of Internet addresses for the world?ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit partnership of people from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable.
What is the global collection of web page circulated on the Internet?The World Wide Web -- also known as the web, WWW or W3 -- refers to all the public websites or pages that users can access on their local computers and other devices through the internet. These pages and documents are interconnected by means of hyperlinks that users click on for information.
|