Question: How can
students evaluate online sources for the purposes of research/
Answer/Quote: “There is so
much information on the Web posted by so many different people. How do you know
if something is accurate and reliable? One way to determine if the information
is valid is to use the CRAP test. For this test, you will surf the Internet to
Find a Web page.” P. 71.
“I.
Description of your search:
>What is your topic?
>What search engine(s) did you use?
>What key words did you use to do
your search?
>How many hits (results) did you get?
>How many sites did you look at? Did
you go beyond the 1 page of results?
II.
CRAP Test
A.
Content
>Coose one of your sites. Copy and
paste the URL below.
> Is the URL from an ‘org,’ ‘edu,’
‘com,’ Or ‘gov”?
>Is the information fact or opinion?
>Is the information documented?
Explain.
>Is the page well written? Is it well
proofed and error free?
>Now go the root of the Web page by
omitting everything after the gov or com in the URL (ex. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/index.html) Once you are
on the root’s homepage look for an ‘about us’ or ‘information’ that gives
insight about the host. What do you learn? Does it add or take away from the
page’s credibility? Explain.
B.
Recency
>How old is the information? How
often is it updated?
>Are the links on the page working or
‘dead’?
>Does the web site include references
to mostly current or out-of-date information?
C.
Author
>Who is the author of this site? Is
it a person? Organization?
>Is the author/organization qualified
to write on the subject? Explain.
>Can the author/organization be
contacted for further information?
>What biases does/might the author
bring to the information? Why is the author writing about the subject? Explain.
D.
Purpose
>What is the purpose of this
information? Inform? Persuade? Entertain?
>Does the author/organization make
his/her purpose or intentions clear?
>Who is the intended audience for
this information (for a hint, go back to the root of the page)? Explain.
> On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being
least reliable ‘it’s crap’ and 10 being most reliable ‘it’s expert
information’). What would you rank this site and why?”
pp. 71 & 72.
Comment: In addition to the CRAP analysis of online
sources, this article also supplies an easy-to-follow guide to documenting
sources online and in traditional media. RayS.
Title: “A Personal
Touch: Embedding Library Faculty into Online English 102.” Casey Kadavy and Kim
Chuppa-Cornell. Teaching English in the
Two-Year College (September 2011),
63-77.
No comments:
Post a Comment