Evaluating every source you find for your assignment insures you use only accurate, current and relevant information in your work. This is especially crucial when using results from web searches, such as Google. Anyone can put up a website or web page.
Scholarly journal articles must go through a peer review process before being accepted for publication. Although books and magazine articles are reviewed by editors and publishers, they could be biased or inaccurate. Information on the Internet does not go through any review process at all - so proceed cautiously and apply the CRAAP test rigorously!
After you've found books, articles and websites how do you know that they are valid and right for your topic? Check out this CRAAP Test video from Western Libraries for an easy way to remember and use 5 evaluation criteria: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose. Then use the CRAAP worksheet to score each of your sources according to all the criteria.
Use the CRAAP Test worksheet from Juniata College to score your sources and see if they make the grade!
Graphic - Humber College
Other good sites to learn how to evaluate websites and other resources are:
From Johns Hopkins University, this guide provides an in-depth examination of evaluation criteria for all types of sources from social media to scholarly articles. Emphasizes how to detect propaganda and misinformation
Evaluating Sources for Credibility Video
For more tips on how to evaluate information sources, including the detection of bias, check out this video from North Carolina State University.