EAPP

EVALUATING SOURCES
Teacher Sara's English Class
At the end of the lesson, the students shall be able to:

To find the most relevant information for your

topic and assignment
To ensure the quality and reliability of your
research
To find expert views, opinions, and research on
your topic
To weed out unreliable, biased, outdated, and/or
incorrect information
To make sure you get the information your
professor is seeking
Evaluate Sources With the
Big 5 Criteria
Accuracy
Currency
Authority

Coverage Purpose
(relevance)
 Currency:
Check the publication date and
determine whether it is sufficiently
current for your topic.
Coverage (relevance):
Consider whether the source is
relevant to your research and
whether it covers the topic
adequately for your needs.
Authority: Discover the
credentials of the authors of
the source and determine their
level of expertise and
knowledge about the subject.
Accuracy: Consider whether
the source presents accurate
information and whether you
can verify that information.
Objectivity (purpose):Think
about the author's purpose in
creating the source and
consider how that affects its
usefulness to your research.
 Evaluate Sources With the CRAAP
Test
Another way to evaluate your sources is the CRAAP
Test, which means evaluating the following qualities of
your sources:
Currency
Relevance
Authority
Accuracy
Purpose
 SCENARIO 1

Let's Try
SCENARIO 2
1. Historical Question: Who was
present at the signing of the
Declaration of Independence?

Source 1: Hollywood movie about the SCENE 1

American Revolution made in 2001.

Source 2: Book written by a famous

historian who is an expert on the
American Revolution, published in
1999.
Which do you trust more? Why?
2. Historical Question: What was
slavery like in South Carolina?

Source 1: Interview with former slave SCENE 2

in 1936. An interviewer is a black man
collecting oral histories for the
Federal Writers’ Project.

Source 2: Interview with former slave

in 1936. The interviewer is a white
woman collecting oral histories for
the Federal Writers’ Project.