FYE 1220 - First Year Seminar: CRAAP
Why is Evaluating Information Important?
The ability to evaluate information is a skill everyone needs to acquire. It is easy to find poor quality, out-dated, and bogus information. Finding the best information to meet your needs takes a critical eye. To carefully assess and select appropriate and credible information takes time and critical evaluation, especially when you are completing academic assignments. Academic work requires accurate and documented information. This page offers tips and tutorials on evaluating information.
Research Librarian
CRAAP Test: For Evaluating Web Resources
Using CRAAP to Evaluate Sources
The CRAAP Test is an easy way to evaluate sources. CRAAP is an easy to remember acronym that walks you through a set of questions to help you evaluate each source.
C - Currency: is the material current?
R - Relevant: is the material relevant to my topic?
A - Authority: Who wrote/created this source?
A - Accuracy: Where does this information come from?
P - Purpose: What is the purpose of this information (inform, pursuade, etc)?
Below is a video from McMaster Libraries on using the CRAAP Test, and also a video from Portland State Unversity. They are using a slightly different version of CRAP, BUT I LOVE how they show using the test with actual websites! Below the two videos is a copy of the CRAAP Rubric provided by Lamar State College. The rubric walks you through the CRAAP questions and provides a scoring system to help evaluate sources. Remember - BE BRUTAL in your evaluation! You want to choose sources that will enhance your research!